Daniel Lucero and Makallyn Hunt were sentenced for Theft and Aggravated Taking the Identity of Another after pleading guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court.
Lucero, age 34, entered a guilty plea on February 24, 2023, to one count of Theft, a class 2 felony, and one count of Aggravated Taking the Identity of Another, a class 3 felony, and was sentenced to 7 years in the Arizona Department of Corrections to be followed by a period of probation with white collar terms.
Hunt, age 22, had entered a guilty plea on January 20, 2023, to one count of Theft, a class 5 felony, and one count of Aggravated Taking the Identity of Another, a class 3 felony, and was sentenced to 1.5 years in the Arizona Department of Corrections to be followed by a period of probation with white collar terms.
Both were also ordered to pay $46,741 to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment and $181,746 to the Arizona Department of Economic Security.
The Arizona Attorney General’s indictment of the duo alleged that Lucero and Hunt broke into hundreds of mailboxes throughout Arizona and Colorado and used their victims’ identities to apply for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments. Through a joint investigation by the Glendale Police Department and the United States Office of Inspector General – Department of Labor, the couple was apprehended and found with thousands of personal identifying information and dozens of fraudulently acquired prepaid debit cards.
The victims in this investigation included hundreds of elderly individuals unaware that their identities were used to apply for federally funded state assistance monies.