OAKLAND — A Modesto woman was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison Friday for conspiring with her son to use an identity theft scheme to steal $145,000 in COVID-19 stimulus money, prosecutors said.
Sheila Dunlap, 52, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Susan Illston. Prosecutors haven’t charged Dunlap’s son and co-conspirator, Darnell Williams, because he is on death row for two counts of first-degree murder, including the killing of an 8-year-old girl.
While in San Quentin State Prison, Williams allegedly gave Dunlap the identities of hundreds of people for her to use to file fraudulent EIP claims. Dunlap filed 121 false claims and made $145,000, according to court records. She will be required to pay restitution as part of the sentencing.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed on the 27-month sentence.
Dunlap’s attorney, assistant federal public defender Candis Mitchell, wrote in a sentencing brief that Dunlap’s life was a continual struggle, that she’d been horribly abused since childhood, and that she was finally gaining some stability when she committed the offenses.
“As a result of her conviction, Ms. Dunlap has lost her job and her family is struggling to make ends meet. She once again has found herself starting completely over and knows that the time that she will be spending in custody will be at a great hardship to her family,” Mitchell wrote. “What strikes Ms. Dunlap the most is that at the time she committed the offense she was so close to being free of the cycles that had previously trapped her.”
Dunlap pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft in March.
Williams was sentenced to death in 2016 for murdering 8-year-old Alaysha Carradine, of Oakland, and 22-year-old Anthony Medearis, of Berkeley, in separate 2013 shootings several weeks apart. Prosecutors described him as hellbent on revenge over the death of a friend, causing him to target the suspected killer’s family. He opened fire on Alaysha and a group of children, a grandmother, and a friend during a sleepover, striking everyone with gunfire but killing Alaysha, according to witness testimony.
Weeks later, during a dice game in Berkeley, Williams shot and killed Medearis, who begged for mercy as he was shot. Prosecutors said he believed Medearis was a police informant.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has shut down California’s executions: The state hasn’t executed a condemned prisoner in 16 years, meaning all death row inmates are essentially serving life sentences pending appeal.
Source: www.mercurynews.com