Tomorrow at 2 pm, CMU, who regularly attends Bible study with me, faces sentencing regarding felony charges. He faces life in prison though that sentence is seemingly unlikely. Please keep all involved in this process in your prayers.
Here is an article regarding the case that appeared in the Knoxville News-Sentinel on May 2nd:
Man pleads guilty to ID theft, fraud
Knoxville News Sentinel (TN) - Friday, May 2, 2008
Author: JAMIE SATTERFIELD (satterfield@knoxnews.com)
A 34-year-old Knoxville man who used how-to books to teach himself how to steal identities, and perform a little ninja mind manipulation to boot, pleaded guilty Thursday to a beefed-up federal law.
Christopher McEwan Ulmer admitted at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan that he concocted a complicated scheme to steal the identities of at least 19 people and used their personal information to trick banks into issuing him 22 credit cards, ripping off the institutions for more than $35,000.
Among the charges to which Ulmer confessed was an aggravated identity theft law recently authorized by Congress that beefs up penalties for the crime. Assistant U.S. Attorney Trey Hamilton said that law requires that Ulmer serve a minimum mandatory two-year prison term on top of any other sentence he may receive for mail fraud and identity-theft charges to which he admitted guilt.
Ulmer was nabbed last year after U.S. Postal Inspections Agent Wendy Boles and her cohorts raided Ulmer ’s Jomandowa Lane home and discovered not only a computer full of fake identifi cation documents, including Social Security cards, pay stubs, utility bills and driver’s licenses, but a bookshelf stocked with instructional guides on how to defraud people and glean personal information from them.
Also in his how-to collection were books on the “techniques of ninja mind manipulation,” the crafting of disguises and tips for getting a date, federal court records show.
Ulmer suggested at Thursday’s hearing he might suffer from mental health woes.
“I was initially treated for schizophrenia and later for bipolar (disorder),” Ulmer said. “I don’t think they ever came to a defi nitive answer.”
Hamilton was quick to point out there was no evidence Ulmer , who has some college courses under his belt, is mentally incompetent.
Defense attorney Ralph Harwell agreed. “We have no problems or questions of his competency,” Harwell said.
Ulmer concocted a scheme to steal identities that involved the use of mailboxes of vacant homes in West and South Knoxville and the fooling of credit bureaus through the use of the addresses of those homes. Once Ulmer convinced credit bureaus to change key information on the reports of those people whose identities he had stolen, he was able to convince banks to issue him credit in others’ names, court records stated.
Varlan set an Aug. 27 sentencing hearing.
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