Gerald Pierce appeared on Monday morning. He pled guilty to two theft counts.
DALLAS — A person who falsified deeds utilizing solid signatures, and fled from a courtroom final 12 months, pled guilty Monday.
Gerald Pierce, 42, acquired a 10-year sentence on two counts of felony theft. Authorities captured Pierce in Mississippi on a visitors cease after he from a Dallas County courtroom this previous August.
Dallas County prosecutors say Pierce falsified deeds utilizing solid signatures to acquire management of seven homes in Dallas County. Some of these properties have been then bought to unsuspecting consumers.
At that August listening to, WFAA cameras have been there when Pierce got here to courtroom. He had been given probation for an assault cost dedicated in 2014.
Prosecutors requested a choose to revoke his probation as a result of, they mentioned, he violated the phrases of his probation when he stole and bought homes that didn’t belong to him. Prosecutors additionally mentioned he failed to report to probation from 2016 to 2019.
During that listening to, Pierce left throughout a break and didn’t return.
In courtroom Monday, Pierce appeared in shackles and a jail jumpsuit. After conferring together with his lawyer, he agreed to plead guilty to the fees associated to the deed fraud.
He will serve that the 10-year sentence concurrently with the 25-year sentence he acquired on the sooner assault cost.
“Gerald Pierce thought that he was able to get away with it,” Dallas County prosecutor Phillip Clark instructed WFAA. “I think he thought that he was hiding behind the paperwork and that the paperwork was going to be enough of a screen to protect him. The fact that he fled in the middle of his hearing back in August maybe was a sign that he realized that that protection from that paperwork was not as good a screen as he thought.”
Since 2019, WFAA’s “Dirty Deeds” sequence has revealed how scammers have taken management of properties that they don’t personal. In some instances, the cast signatures of useless folks have made their approach onto property deeds filed with the county. WFAA aired a particular on deed fraud this previous December.
There are a number of payments which have been filed or are anticipated to be filed by lawmakers making an attempt to make deed fraud more durable.
Dallas state Rep. Yvonne Davis has once more filed laws that will enable all counties to file for photograph identification when somebody recordsdata a deed, and to refuse to report that deed if the individual can’t or gained’t present ID.
Currently, solely counties with greater than 800,000 inhabitants can legally ask for photograph identification. However, Dallas and different counties instructed WFAA that they don’t consider they will legally refuse to file a deed if somebody refuses to present ID.
Previous Dirty Deeds protection:
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