FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 22, 2015
Contact: Heather F. Williamson
Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office
20 East Market Street
Leesburg, VA 20176-2809
(703) 777-0242
JUDGE IMPOSES TWO YEARS FOR GRAND LARCENY
DEFENDANT ORDERED TO PAY $86,000 IN RESTITUTION
LEESBURG, Virginia – October 9, 2015. Petronia Ulandda Watson, 47, appeared before Judge Jeanette Irby in Loudoun County Circuit Court to be sentenced on four counts of grand larceny. Irby sentenced Watson to an active sentence of two years in the Virginia Department of Corrections.
In late October 2014, the victim noticed that numerous pieces of ceremonial gold jewelry were missing from her home. The victim believed that the jewelry may have been stolen up to a year or more earlier, but went unnoticed because it was only used on rare occasions. The theft was reported to law enforcement. A search of pawn shop databases revealed that Watson, a former child care provider in the victim’s home, pawned a large quantity of gold jewelry between November 2012 and November 2013. The jewelry was sold as scrap gold, photographed for documentation purposes, and melted down by the pawn shop.
Watson was subsequently interviewed by law enforcement and admitted to stealing and pawning the jewelry due to personal financial difficulties. Watson revealed that she would remove a few pieces of jewelry at a time and then sell them to a cash-for-gold pawn shop.
Watson entered pleas of guilty to four counts of grand larceny on April 27, 2015.
Irby imposed an additional two years suspended time, conditioned upon Watson’s good behavior and her successful completion of five years supervised probation upon her release from prison. Irby further ordered that Watson pay $86,000 in restitution to the victim.
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