OC Man Sentenced To Six Years In Prison For Taking Late Father's Checks
SANTA ANA (CBS/AP) — An Orange County man has been sentenced to six years in prison for collecting Social Security checks intended for his dead father, whose skeletal human remains were found in a backyard.
City News Service reports 66-year-old Larry Dominguez of Santa Ana was sentenced Wednesday immediately after pleading guilty to several charges including grand theft, forgery and identity theft.
Prosecutors say Dominguez collected about $92,000 in Social Security checks intended for his deceased father Wallace Benjamin Dominguez over several years.
A couple doing yard work discovered the remains in January at the home in the 2500 block of N. Hesperian Street where Larry Dominguez was the previous owner.
Santa Ana police officers were notified and subsequently contacted the defendant at his mobile home residence in Santa Ana as part of the investigation, which revealed that after Dominguez's father died in May 2005, after which time Dominguez began stealing benefits.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Kazuharu Makino also ordered Dominguez to pay $97,403 in restitution.
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