Man sentenced for forging fake checks; says he wanted to give his family a 'spectacular' Christmas - East Idaho News
Crime Watch

Man sentenced for forging fake checks; says he wanted to give his family a ‘spectacular’ Christmas

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REXBURG — A man who admitted to forging fake checks was sentenced to serve four years in prison Monday.

Evan Jones, 21, was sentenced to two years fixed and two years indeterminate but Judge Gregory Moeller suspended the sentence and ordered Jones to serve probation. If he messes up while on probation, he could serve the entire prison sentence.

In addition to probation, Jones was ordered to serve 60 days in jail and complete 100 hours of community service. He is also required to write letters of apology to the victims and is prohibited from having a personal checking or credit card account for one year.

Jones was originally charged with seven felonies – five for forging checks, one for grand theft by deception and one for using a computer to obtain money under fraudulent pretenses. He pleaded guilty to grand theft by deception as part of a plea deal.

He was arrested in December after ordering checks from Amazon.com that were made to look like they came from Idaho Central Credit Union.

“He would meet the people at night at McDonald’s, Maverik, Subway or other places like that,” Lewis said to EastIdahoNews.com in December. “He bought an ATV, drone, laptop, and other personal things.” ​

The items were all returned to their owners but Jones is required to pay outstanding restitution.

At the time the crimes were committed, he said that he was under financial strain. After being married for less than a year, he stated he wanted to be a good provider.

During his sentencing hearing Monday, Jones said he wanted to give his family a “spectacular” Christmas and apologized.

“I want to emphasize how extraordinarily sorry I truly am for my actions. I’ve brought a great amount of shame to myself, my family and this community,” Jones said. “Since then I’ve realized more than anything that it’s not about the materialistic parts of life. My true treasure really is the love that I have for my wife and my family.”

Moeller noted that the choices Jones made could have affected the holidays for those he targeted.

“You may have been denying a Christmas to the families of these seven victims,” Moeller said.

Jones suffers from anxiety and depression and was not on medication at the time he committed the crime, according to his defense attorney Joshua Garner.

Garner asked the judge to withhold judgment and place Jones on probation for three years. He noted his client has no history of criminal activity and this was “out of character” for Jones.

“This is a young man who engaged in criminal behavior that was felony level without really much experience at all violating the law,” Garner said.

Moeller noted the crime didn’t happen just once, but seven times.

“It was planned out, it was premeditated and it was calculated,” Moeller said. “That displays a level of criminality and a high level of dishonesty that really concerns the court.”

Madison County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Robert Wood said that the victims lost a lot, and the crime shouldn’t be taken lightly.

“Not only is it an extremely serious crime, it’s an extremely brazen crime to stay in the same community and keep giving out these bad checks,” Wood said.

Wood recommended two years fixed and two years indeterminate with a suspended sentence, probation and 60 days in jail.

Jones is a 4.0 student and was expelled from Brigham Young University-Idaho because of the crimes.

“You went straight from no record at all to the major leagues very quickly, sir. That’s the kind of overachiever you don’t want to be,” Moeller said.

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