According to reports from Honolulu, a Hawaii couple has been found guilty of various charges including conspiracy, passport fraud, and identity theft, after adopting false identities derived from deceased infants for an extensive period.
Court records revealed that the jury took approximately two hours to reach the verdict on Monday. During the trial at the U.S. District Court in Honolulu, the presiding judge, respecting the couple's preferred aliases, addressed them as Bobby Fort and Julie Montague.
The couple defended their actions in court, claiming that they had not caused any harm.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Muehleck disclosed during the trial that the real Bobby Fort had passed away over half a century ago due to what was described as a brief illness.
Tonda Montague Ferguson, a witness in the case, shared that her sister, Julie Montague, had been born with defects and unfortunately passed away a few weeks after birth in 1968.
Both infants were laid to rest in separate Texas cemeteries, approximately 15 miles apart, as mentioned by Muehleck. Prosecutors identified the couple's actual identities as Walter Glenn Primrose and Gwynn Darle Morrison.
It was revealed that the couple, who had previously attended the same Texas high school, resorted to changing their identities due to substantial financial liabilities, as indicated by a classmate familiar with their situation.
The prosecutor further disclosed that the husband had even utilized his fraudulent identity, which reduced his age by 12 years, to enlist in the Coast Guard.
Upon sentencing in March, they are likely to face maximum prison terms of up to 10 years for charges related to fraudulent passport use and false statements. Additionally, they could be subject to five years for conspiracy charges and compulsory two-year consecutive terms for aggravated identity theft.
The case attracted significant attention following their arrest last year, with the prosecution initially hinting at a broader narrative beyond mere identity theft. Notably, early on in the proceedings, the prosecutors presented Polaroids depicting the couple donning what seemed to be genuine KGB uniforms.
However, the couple's defense attorneys contended that the attire had been worn for amusement on a single occasion, leading the prosecutors to retract any notions of involvement in Russian espionage.
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