(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Lincoln County woman with an extensive criminal record avoided a jury trial, which was originally scheduled to be held in Payne County this week, by pleading guilty at a pre-trial hearing to fraudulently obtaining checks in her ex-husband’s name without his knowledge, forging his signature and passing six checks at Perkins stores in 2012.
Christy Lynn Kinsley, 33, was given a seven-year prison term by Payne County District Judge Phillip Corley on Dec. 18 with an order to pay $683 restitution, court records show.
Her co-defendant, Jerrell Jerome Davis, 31, with whom she lived in Wellston, pleaded guilty to similar charges in August of 2013 before Payne County Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler, who placed him on five years’ probation with an order to pay $683 restitution, have a mental health evaluation and perform 50 hours of community service.
When Kinsley was interviewed by Perkins Police Chief Bob Ernst, “Christy said her ex-husband, Kevin Herrmann, had given her a check to make a restitution payment to the District Attorney’s Office for previous bogus check charges that she had gone to prison for.
“Christy said she used the information on the check to call a check-making company to get additional checks ordered.
“Christy said when she was on the phone with the check-making company, the clerk on the other end of the phone call told Christy she could not be Kevin because Kevin is a male.
“The clerk requested to speak with Kevin so Christy handed the phone to Jerrell who stated he was Kevin thereby completing the check order.
“I asked Christy why her ex-husband, Kevin Herrmann, would give her a check to make a restitution payment and she said, ‘He helps me with everything.’ Christy then said, ‘I took advantage of him.’
“Christy was also shown digital images of all the checks and initialed next to the signature on six of the seven checks written in the city of Perkins indicating she was the person that signed the checks, by printing the name, Kevin Herrmann.
“Christy said she does not remember signing check #1309 to Williams Grocery in the amount of $199.81,” a count that was later dismissed against her by the prosecution.
“Christy said Jerrell did go to the grocery store by himself at least once she thought. Christy did agree with Jerrell’s statement that they did write all these checks together as a couple.”
According to state Department of Corrections records, Kinsley had been released from prison in February 2010, after serving less than half of a five-year prison term she was given in 2007, for passing bogus checks in Payne County in 2005.
For that felony, Kinsley was ordered to pay restitution of $29,464 and serve five years of probation, which was subsequently revoked. She has been imprisoned since August in that case.
Kinsley was also sentenced in 2007 to serve concurrent five-year prison terms for assault and battery in 2000 and false pawn declaration in 2001, both in Payne County.
Kinsley also has a felony conviction for uttering forged instruments in Creek County in 2007, for which she was placed on probation for five years, DOC records show.
Kinsley also has a felony conviction for perjury in Creek County in 2006, for which she was placed on probation for five years, DOC records show.
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