Judge sends identity thief to prison

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February 6, 2012

By Jeff Lehr news@joplinglobe.com The Joplin Globe Mon Feb 06, 2012, 10:36 PM CST

JOPLIN, Mo. — The husband of a woman who was sent to prison last year for putting an imaginary baby up for sale on Craigslist was assessed a prison term himself Monday for trafficking in stolen identities.

Circuit Judge Gayle Crane assessed Wilks G. Sims Jr., 56, a term of five years at his sentencing hearing in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin.

The conviction stems from numerous forms of other people’s identification that police found when they searched the home of the defendant and his wife, Alice H. Sims, 30, after her arrest in the Craigslist scam on Dec. 8, 2010.

A probable-cause affidavit states that the couple possessed documents containing the birth dates, Social Security numbers and checking account numbers of 81 other people. Police also found that electric, water and gas services for the couple’s home at 1921 S. Wall Ave. were in other people’s names, according to the affidavit.

Wilks Sims pleaded guilty to the offense Dec. 1 in a plea deal with the Jasper County prosecutor’s office that limited the sentence he might be assessed to five years. Sims said at his sentencing hearing that he is estranged from Alice Sims and is involved with another woman.

Alice Sims pleaded guilty in February of last year to a charge of stealing and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Her conviction stemmed from a $200 payment that she accepted from two undercover police officers who met her in a parking lot of a McDonald’s in Joplin. The money was intended as a down payment on an unborn baby she had advertised for sale on the Internet site Craigslist.

A woman who had been in contact with Sims about the ad via emails and text messages informed police of the matter. The woman set up the meeting with Sims at the McDonald’s, and two undercover officers kept the appointment instead.

Sims, who turned out not to be pregnant, reportedly agreed to sell her unborn child to the officers for the $200 down payment and $100 more each month until the child was born.

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Judge sends identity thief to prison

At the request of Republican lawmakers, taxpayers are funding a 24-hour security camera to watch over a Rush Limbaugh bust in the Missouri Capitol. Do you think this is needed?

At the request of Republican lawmakers, taxpayers are funding a 24-hour security camera to watch over a Rush Limbaugh bust in the Missouri Capitol. Do you think this is needed?

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