SUNBURY — Joyce Newton was a typical 21st-century “lonely heart” when she logged onto the Internet in search of companionship in October 2003.

The city woman now claims it was naivete and her misfortune that she fell into a long-distance relationship with a South African that led to her conviction by a Northumberland County jury in January of felony charges, including identity theft.

The 57-year-old Ridge Avenue resident continues to profess her innocence as she faces sentencing Monday for receiving stolen property, identity theft and criminal conspiracy to commit identity theft. She was acquitted of five other charges in January.

Her attorney, conflicts counselor John Broda, said Newton faces a county jail sentence and he’ll argue for probation.

The way Newton tells it, she was simply looking for love and was naive enough to get pulled into an Internet scam by a con man.

She’s had a history of bad and tragic relations, including a first marriage that ended in divorce after eight years and two children.

Newton remarried in 1980 and had a third child. Together, the couple took in two foster children.

In 1987, her second husband committed suicide and “life took a drastic turn,” Newton said.

She had to cease foster parenting, became home-bound and fell into depression that required medication.

Then, in 1995, her youngest son brought a computer into the home and Newton began exploring the outside world.

She met a man in a chat room in 1997 and, after a face-to-face meeting, decided she and her son, then 15, would move to the state of Washington to live with him.

They stayed for a year before Newton realized the relationship wasn’t working and returned to the Valley.

“I stopped looking to meet people online,” she said.

But in late 2003, she came across a Web site promising a love connection and she logged onto it.

The contact