Real Estate Broker Who Forged Deed To Swipe Home Gets Break As Judge Suspends All But Two Months Of 20-Year Sentence; Defendant Faces Add'l Forgery, Grand Larceny Charges In Unrelated Case

In Prince George, Virginia, The Hopewell News reports:

• A local real estate broker, and owner of a realty company in Hopewell, has been sentenced to two months imprisonment after being convicted on two counts of forgery.
  
  Donna Howlett, 55, of Charles City, was sentenced in Prince George Circuit Court on Thursday to two counts of felony forgery after a judge ruled that she forged another woman’s name onto a quick-claim deed and falsely transferred ownership of a home and property over to her own company, Anchor Real Estate LLC.
  
  Howlett previously pleaded not guilty to both charges on May 7, where her case was originally heard before Judge W. Allan Sharrett, who delayed any ruling on the matter to take it under advisement.
  
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  Because the acts of forgery created lingering headaches for a multitude of parties trying to recover lost finances, where a group of lawyers representing varying clients expressed faint hopes of finding a resolution to this matter, Sharrett ruled above the commonwealth’s request.
  
  “The ripple effects are tremendous,” Sharrett said, before he handed out 20 years imprisonment, with 19 years and 10 months suspended, for a two month active sentence. [...] Howlett will surrender herself to the Department of Corrections on Dec. 1, at which point she will serve the two month sentence.
  
  Monetary restitution will be determined at a later point.
  
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  Howlett also faces two additional charges of forgery and one charge of grand larceny in Prince George in an unrelated case.

For the story, see Real estate broker gets jail.