A man from Hunker was sentenced yesterday for stealing checks and forging them for purchases at businesses in Indiana, Westmoreland and three other counties.
In Westmoreland County Court on Monday, 56-year-old William Barnhart entered a guilty plea to one felony count of theft. Police said that sometime in 2020, he broke into homes in Hempfield, South Huntingdon and New Stanton and used the them over the next few years to make more than 40 purchases. The investigation started in 2021, with investigators getting a description of the suspect the following year. When police searched his home in 2023, they found some of the items purchased with the forged checks, which included a civil-war era handgun and an electric bike.
Barnhart originally faced 82 separate counts but the case was consolidated by prosecutors to seven charges including theft, receiving stolen property, forgery, identity theft and others. Judge Meghan Billik-Defazio allowed him to plead guilty to the one count as part of a plea deal. He is to make $32,000 in restitution and serve three years of probation. Court officials say he has already paid out $20,600 to his victims.
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