Staff photo / Ed Runyan April Waidman, who took money from customers for puppies and dog insemination materials but did not deliver the puppies or materials for 80 customers, was sentenced to a year of house arrest, five years of probation, six months at the end in jail and ordered to pay restitution Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Her attorney, Jeffrey Jakmides, listens to the sentence with her.

YOUNGSTOWN — Some of the 80 people who lost money and never got puppies or puppy breeding products they paid for said Thursday the sham puppy operation April Waidman operated left them poorer and frustrated.

Visiting Judge W. Wyatt McKay in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced Waidman, 41, of Beloit, to five years of probation, the last six months of which will be in the Mahoning County jail, plus one year of house arrest, and an order to pay restitution of about $100,000. Her house arrest will allow her to work.

McKay said the timing of the jail time is to “allow us to get maximum restitution” during the earlier part of her probation. She is also ordered to no longer engage in the sale or brokering of animals or animal-related products during her probation, receive a mental health assessment and comply with treatment recommendations.

She must “remain free from illegal drugs” and maintain employment. She could also later spend up to 35 months in prison if she does not obey the rules of her probation.

Her attorney, Jeffrey Jakmides, said Thursday Waidman would be paying $10,000 that day and that she had paid other money through small-claims cases. Prosecutors said the $10,000 brings her restitution amount to below $100,000.

Kassandra Maillis of Struthers said she followed advice after she realized she had been scammed and made a small-claims filing and has received most of the $1,600 she paid back. But the toll the experience has taken on her psyche has been even greater.

The money she paid was for an English Bulldog puppy to be her emotional support pet for other challenges in her life. She never received the puppy.

“April not only robbed me of my money but my trust in others as well. I constantly second guess my judgment in others because of her actions,” she said.

“I often find myself feeling shameful and am hard on myself for allowing yet another person to take advantage of me. I am hurt, sad, angry. I ask that April be sentenced to jail time first and foremost and then pay restitution back to every victim. Simply paying restitution is not a form of punishment in my eyes because she already owes us,” she said.

“April has been doing this for years,” she said. “And I wholeheartedly believe she will go right back to doing that again if she doesn’t face real punishment. I hope you hold her accountable so us victims can have some peace.”

Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Kyle Hilles told McKay that Waidman pleaded guilty earlier to 80 counts of theft-related offenses, many of them low-level felonies. He said McKay was given 23 written victim impact statements.

HIlles said the case “arose out of an extensive and deliberate scheme orchestrated by (Waidman) in which she advertised puppies and canine semen for sale through various platforms,” accepted customers’ money but failed to deliver the products. The scheme dates back to 2017, Hilles said.

He noted that Waidman has no previous criminal record, but the “sheer amount of victims, the sheer amount of cases, the sheer amount of hurt that she has caused these victims, it is one of the most intricate criminal cases I’ve ever seen.”

Before announcing the sentence, McKay noted that under Ohio law, he can “reserve a sentence” for low-level felony offenders, “and if the defendant does not obey the rules of probation, then another judge than me, probably, will have the right to send her to prison for a long time.”