Orange City, Iowa — A Hawarden woman has been sentenced to a suspended ten-year prison term after she was found to have pocketed cash payments from customers.
Sioux County Attorney Thomas Kunstle says that 27-year-old Brenda Faviola Montes of Hawarden was sentenced on Monday, January 12, 2015, in Sioux County District Court for the crime of First Degree Theft, a Class C Felony.
Court records indicate that on July 30, 2014, the Hawarden Police Department received a complaint from Cellular Services reporting that a customer was late on a payment and was facing disconnection. The owner of the store contacted the customer who stated they brought in cash and gave it to employee Brenda Montes. The owner and a US Cellular district representative confronted Montes, who admitted taking cash payments from customers and deleting the payments from their accounts over an 18-month period.
Montes was sentenced to ten years in prison. The ten-year prison term was suspended and she will serve three years probation. She was also ordered to pay restitution to Cellular Services, pay a $125 Law Enforcement Initiative Surcharge, successfully complete a victim empathy course, and submit a DNA sample.
