Woman convicted of identity theft

A Lake County jury deliberated for about two hours Friday before convicting a North Carolina woman of identity theft.

Aretha Antoine, 33, faces up to 30 years in prison when she returns to court Nov. 15 for sentencing.

A jury of six men and six women found her guilty of stealing more than $100,000 from a pair of Lincolnshire women by convincing them to give her personal financial information.

Antoine looted the bank account of Charlotte Wiedman of $71,000 and took another $45,000 from accounts held by Janet Stein.

Antoine made up to 20 calls a day to the women posing as a representative of various government agencies. She tricked the women into revealing birth dates, Social Security numbers and other information.

She then used the information to transfer money from the victims' accounts into accounts Antoine established for herself, or converted the funds into pre-paid debit cards.

Antoine used several aliases to fill out forms required to advance her scheme, including Belinda French and Germaine Aretha Albert Alcock among many others, officials said.

Prosecutors produced volumes of records linking Antoine's various phones to the victims, money transfers and even a photograph of Antoine accessing a fraudulent account at an automated teller machine in her hometown of Fayetteville.

"Take a look at the evidence and connect the dots," Assistant State's Attorney Brett Henne said in his closing argument. "The evidence points to one person and one person only -- the defendant."

Antoine did not testify during the three-day trial, and her attorneys did not offer evidence in her defense.

Instead, Assistant Public Defender John Bailey asked jurors to consider what he claimed were holes in the prosecution case.

Bailey said phone calls were made from the apartment where Antoine lived alone, at the same time some of the ATM transactions involving the stolen money were made.

"The thing that the state has to do is prove the defendant did something," he said. "Have they shown you any evidence of that? No."

Antoine was found guilty of aggravated identity theft, theft and fraud by wire.

Circuit Judge Victoria Rossetti revoked the $10 million bond Antoine has been held on since her arrest in March after the verdicts were read.

Henne and Assistant State's Attorney Christen Bishop declined to say exactly what sentence they will ask Rossetti to impose. Antoine faces a minimum of six years in prison.