Barton was arrested in Westwood after police followed his mother and a Crimestoppers tip Feb. 12. Barton had been traveling up and down the Interstate 75 corridor targeting credit cards from unattended purses in hospitals and doctor’s offices, police said. Police believed Barton was responsible for swiping credit cards from numerous hospitals and medical facilities and then using them to buy electronics at nearby stores.
There was an 18-count indictment against Barton in Hamilton County, 11 counts in Warren County, two counts were pending in the Butler County Area Courts and charges were also approved by the prosecutor in Montgomery County.
Triffon Callos, a spokesman for the Hamilton County prosecutor’s office, said they could neither confirm nor deny that Barton may have taken his own life. The cases in the other jurisdictions were low level felonies, but Barton could have been looking at serious prison time had he been convicted in Cincinnati.
Six of the counts there were for burglary, which if convicted carry an eight-year prison term. If Barton had been convicted on all counts and received the maximum sentence, he was looking at 59 years, according to Callos.
“Realistically that is far from what the sentence would have been,” Callos said.
Detectives in Warren County said Barton allegedly made purchases totalling $1,800. Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said he was looking at a maximum 11 years behind bars. Barton and an accomplice allegedly stole credit cards from an employee of Springdale Mason Pediatrics in Deerfield Twp., then went to Walmarts in Deerfield Twp.and Lebanon, as well as Target in South Lebanon, and bought iPads.
Barton is also the man believed to have stolen a credit card from a purse at a nursing station at Kettering Medical Center on Southern Boulevard and used it minutes later to purchase an iPad at Meijer. Detective William Aldrich said the Montgomery County prosecutor’s office approved two felony five counts for receiving stolen property.
Barton’s mother unwittingly led Cincinnati police to her son, following a tip called in to Crimestoppers.
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