New Mexico Woman Gets Prison in Fraud Case

(Deming, New Mexico) In May a 55-year-old former teacher and diagnostician, Patricia Garcia, was convicted by a jury of fraud over $20,000 and intent to defraud or embezzle.

This week Garcia was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $53,800.

According to evidence admitted in the trial, between October 2010 and February 2012, Garcia transferred tens of thousands of dollars from the bank accounts of the elderly victim to her own bank account.

The victim testified to how he met Garcia in Columbus shortly after his wife's death.

Within a short time, he allowed her to be named on his bank accounts, but that he was unaware of many of the fund transfers from his accounts to Garcia's.

Garcia currently calls the Luna County Detention Center home.