East Palestine man gets two more years in prison for check fraud
By MARY ANN GREIERLISBON - An East Palestine man already sentenced to four years in prison for escape was ordered to serve an additional two years for writing bad checks to several car lots and scheming to secure funds from one dealership electronically.
Franklin Quinones, 20, whose last known address was 300 E. Park Ave., appeared for sentencing Thursday in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court for two felony counts from an indictment and five felony counts from prosecutor's information.
The sentence included 12 months for forgery and telecommunications fraud, but to be served consecutively to 12 months ordered for three counts of passing bad checks and single counts of theft and identification fraud. The two 12-month terms were also ordered served consecutively to the four-year term issued in September for escape.
The escape charge, which came from the same indictment, was tried before a jury, with Quinones pleading guilty to the other charges after being convicted by the jury.
According to court documents, the escape occurred on April 23 when Quinones fled from police while being permitted to say goodbye to family members at his East Palestine residence after he was placed in custody for the forgery charge.
The charge stemmed from him forging a bogus check on Feb. 18 for $14,181 made payable to Columbiana Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge for payment of a 2002 Jaguar sedan.
In April, he "transmitted checking account and routing numbers of Columbiana Dodge by telephone wire in an attempt to withdraw $60,000 from that account," documents said.
According to prosecutor's information, the other charges stemmed from him writing bad checks to Venezia Auto Sales on April 25, 2007 for insufficient funds, to D'Lux Motors for $9,610 on a closed account on Nov. 15, 2007 and to Auto Mart of Columbiana for $4,491 on a closed account on Nov. 30, 2007.
He also stole payroll account funds from Paychecks Corporation for $11,440 from July 13, 2007 through Aug. 2, 2007 and applied and received credit cards in another person's name to make purchases or withdrawals totaling $4,558, documents said.
Mary Ann Greier can be reached at mgreier@salemnews.net
