News

January 20

Cops: Couple stole from deceased woman

Charges alleging pair used friend’s bank card to buy nearly $1,100 in items advance to county court.

By Edward Lewis elewis@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

HANOVER TWP. – Matthew Lacey was mourning the death of his wife, Kimberly Rose Lacey, 40, in December when he received a phone call from a bank inquiring about her finances.

Lacey said he learned his late wife’s bank card was used at various stores to purchase items after she died.

An investigation by Hanover Township police resulted in the arrest of Michael Wheaton, 25, and his girlfriend, Sabrina Tomcho, 20, on Dec. 29.

Police allege Wheaton and Tomcho used Kimberly Lacey’s bank card to purchase nearly $1,100 worth of items from department stores and gas stations a day after she died, according to the criminal complaint.

“The bank called me and asked, ‘Where is the money going?’ ” Lacey said. “I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ The bank tells me all kinds of money is being spent.”

Wheaton and Tomcho, both of Rutter Avenue, Hanover Township, waived their rights to preliminary hearings before District Judge Joseph Halesey on Tuesday, sending charges of theft and access device fraud to Luzerne County Court.

Wheaton and Tomcho remained free on $5,000 unsecured bail on the charges related to the bank card theft.

However, state police at Wyoming took Wheaton into custody immediately after the hearing in connection with the theft of empty beer kegs from a Plymouth Township restaurant early Monday morning.

Matthew Lacey and Myra Nesbitt, a friend, said Kimberly Lacey died on a couch in Wheaton and Tomcho’s residence on Dec. 4.

An ambulance rushed her to Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Matthew Lacey said he was given his wife’s purse at the hospital. “The only thing that was in her purse was her identification,” he said.

Lacey said $250 he had given her for Christmas presents, bank and credit cards and prescription medications were missing.

“This is lower than a snake,” Nesbitt said. “This is really sickening, to steal from a deceased woman. (Wheaton and Tomcho) were supposed to be friends of ours, and look at what they did.”

“I want them prosecuted to the fullest extend of the law,” Lacey said. “I don’t understand how people can do this in this day and age.”

According to the criminal complaints:

Police said Lacey reported the discrepancies regarding his late wife’s bank account at M&T Bank on Dec. 14.

The bank supplied police with Kimberly Lacey’s account activity, which showed purchases at Wal-Mart Supercenter in Wilkes-Barre Township on Dec. 5.

Wheaton and Tomcho told police, according to the criminal complaints, that they used Kimberly Lacey’s bank card at Wal-Mart, Kmart, several gas stations and Best Buy. When the bank card was declined, Wheaton said, he stopped using the card, the criminal complaints say.

Wheaton and Tomcho are scheduled to be formally arraigned in county court on April 1.

Edward Lewis, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7196.

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