Jessica Langdon reports:
A 31-year-old man faces a 35-year prison sentence in a case involving identity theft, a crime a prosecutor told the judge is one of the most destructive and personal crimes.
Jurors in 30th District Court found David Lee Fairchild guilty in November of fraudulently possessing 10 pieces of others peoples’ identifying information. Following time for a pre-sentence report, 30th District Judge Bob Brotherton heard arguments Friday in Fairchild’s sentencing.
[…]
This was the first time Wichita County took a case to court using new law that creates a greater punishment range for fraudulent possession of other people’s information. The state Legislature came through with measures that made a difference in this type of case, said Maureen Shelton, first assistant criminal district attorney with Wichita County.
“Before they enacted the current law, we would have been capped at two years,” Shelton said. That range — for a state jail felony — applied no matter how many pieces of someone else’s information a defendant had.
Now, someone who has 10 to 49 pieces could face a second-degree felony charge. And in this case, prior convictions enhanced the possible punishment range to that of a first-degree felony — five years to life in prison.
Read more on TimesRecordsNews.com