An Ocala woman who forged signatures across nearly 200 petitions tied to a casino gaming initiative has been sentenced to more than four years in prison.
On Wednesday, 26-year-old Maria Guadalupe Bautista was sentenced to four and a half years’ imprisonment. Earlier this year, a Marion County jury found her guilty on 13 counts of fraudulent use of personal information.
According to court records, then-24-year-old Bautista was originally arrested in 2023 after investigators uncovered a petition fraud scheme she was involved in, which used falsified petition signatures of multiple individuals, including an elected government official…