WP woman faces eight felonies for forging checks at Bakersfield store

A $1,000 cash-only bond has been issued for 29-year-old West Plains resident Elizabeth Breitweiser in connection with a case filed last week in which she is charged  with eight class D felony counts of forgery.

According to the probable cause statement in the case, Breitweiser is alleged to have written eight checks to Evans Kwik Stop in Bakersfield between Oct. 16 and Oct. 18, 2020, from an account that was not hers. Court documents indicate that the checks belonged to John Walton and Breitweiser had allegedly stolen them in another incident that occurred in Howell County. The total amount forged and cashed was $540.27.

She is being charged as a prior offender, meaning she has been found guilty of another felony in her past, based on a 2015 case where she was convicted of burglary and stealing a firearm in Boone County. In that case, she was sentenced to four years in prison. 

If convicted of the new charges, Breitweiser can face up to seven years in prison for each of the eight charges. 

Online records show that the Howell County Sheriff’s Department has also issued several warrants for Breitweiser in open cases there where she is charged with two counts of stealing a motor vehicle, four counts of stealing $750 or more, possession of a controlled substance, property damage and stealing less than $150.