A Spring Township woman accused of stealing at least $65,000 from an 82-year-old relative is facing 649 theft-related charges.
Ahyoka Keith, 53, also known as Carol Ann Sumner, sent the money to internet scammers, including one person she believed to be the actor Kevin Costner, Spring Township police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
While police identified about $65,000 in fraudulent activity on the relative’s bank account, Keith told a detective that she estimated sending $100,000 to people in California, Tennessee and Africa, according to the affidavit. Keith admitted to withdrawing money from the relative’s account and sending it via Paypal and Cash App, police wrote.
The relative’s account, which Keith gained access to in 2021, was additionally used to pay hundreds of dollars in charges to Apple and nearly $5,000 in cell phone bills, some of which were for phones sent to overseas scammers, police wrote.
Keith also fraudulently opened a home equity line of credit in the relative’s name, used it to deposit $34,000 into his account and that same day withdrew $25,000, according to the affidavit.
When questioned by police in 2023, Keith allegedly said she was “in a bad spot with scammers in California,” and that she had no money and “had to do something.”
“Just arrest me and be done,” she said, according to the affidavit.
Keith was initially charged in February 2023 with financial exploitation of an older adult and three theft-related charges. She was out on bail with the case still pending in Centre County Court.
On Feb. 2, 2024, police filed the additional charges, which include 322 felony counts and 327 misdemeanors. The new charges include identity theft, theft, criminal use of a communication facility, access device fraud and financial exploitation of an older adult.
She was taken into custody in Columbus, Ohio on Feb. 16 and transported to Centre County, where she was arraigned on Tuesday night.
District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker denied bail, and Keith is detained at the Centre County Correctional Facility. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 13.
