Antonella M. Barba was charged on Monday, Aug. 10, and charged with shoplifting merchandise valued at less than $200 in Ocean Township (Monmouth County). Barba pleaded not guilty, and the case remains active. A court date is scheduled for Nov. 18.
Barba, who lives in East Orange but is a Point Pleasant native, is accused of stealing from the Seaview Square Shopping Center on Route 66, NJ Advance Media reports. According to the outlet, police responded to the store just before 3:20 p.m. on reports of a shoplifter, the outlet said citing an affidavit.
A review of surveillance footage showed Barba hiding items in a bag while going in and out of a bathroom and a fitting room, NJ Advance Media says citing police. Barba apparently left the bathroom and immediately left the store, and as she was walking out, police found her carrying stolen items in a bag, the outlet reports.
Barba made it to the top 16 on the hit FOX singing show in 2007. Jordin Sparks won the season.
In 2019, Barba was sentenced to 45 months in federal prison after authorities found 830.9 grams of fentanyl in her rental car in Norfolk, VA, in October 2018, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Barba, then 32 and living in Point Pleasant, had flown from Los Angeles to Washington Dulles International Airport, rented the vehicle, and driven to Norfolk, where a police dog alerted officers to the car. Authorities found the fentanyl inside a shoebox on the front passenger-side floor. She was sentenced for possession with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl.
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