Man accused of another real estate scam could get life under California’s three-strikes law

Con man could get life under Calif. 3-strikes law

LOS ANGELES — A man accused of bilking elderly South Los Angeles residents out of their homes in a foreclosure scam is facing a potential life sentence in a rare use of California’s three-strikes law for a white-collar crime.

Timothy Barnett is charged with 23 felonies, including identity theft, real estate fraud and theft from the elderly. He was arrested in April and has pleaded not guilty.

A conviction would be the 47-year-old’s third felony strike after two 1997 burglary convictions stemming from fraud schemes in which he met the victims at their homes. A judge, however, must decide whether to permit Barnett’s prosecution under a third-strike sentencing enhancement.

Los Angeles County prosecutors call him an incorrigible con man who deserves to face 25 years to life if he’s convicted.

“He has an almost magical ability to install confidence in people. He is a great menace to the community,” Max Huntsman, who supervises the real estate fraud section of the county district attorney’s office, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

But critics are questioning whether it’s a proper use of the law that voters passed in 1994.

“I’ve never heard of such a case,” said Stan Goldman, a Loyola Law School professor who is an outspoken opponent of the three-strikes law.

“This law was intended to deal with serious and violent felons and lock them up forever,” Goldman told the Los Angeles Times. “If this guy’s guilty, he’s a pretty despicable and dangerous character. But he hasn’t killed anybody.”

There have been repeated calls to reform the three-strikes law, which permits someone convicted of two serious felonies to face a possible life sentence if convicted of a third felony of any type. In 2004, California voters rejected Proposition 66, which would have amended the law by requiring the third strike to be a violent or serious felony, among other things.

Last month, a judge freed a man who spent 13 years in prison after trying to steal food from a Los Angeles church. Gregory Taylor, 47, was convicted of a third-strike of burglary and had two previous robbery convictions.

In 1995, a Compton man and convicted robber named Jerry Dewayne Williams was sentenced to 25 years to life under the law after he snatched a slice of pizza from some children in Redondo Beach. The sentence was later reduced and he was freed in 1997.

The U.S. Supreme Court twice decided that the three-strikes law doesn’t violate constitutional bans on cruel and unusual punishment.

Prosecutors contend Barnett tricked five people who thought they were refinancing delinquent mortgages into selling their homes to him for a fraction of their value. He remained jailed Thursday on $2.2 million bail pending a Sept. 10 pretrial hearing.

Barnett, who had a $3.1 million home and three Mercedes-Benz cars, did nothing wrong, his attorney says.

Through his Buena Park company, Barnett offered to buy the homes of delinquent owners, often gave them cash sums, leased back the property to them at much lower monthly rates and offered them the chance to buy back the property in two or three years, Winston Kevin McKesson said.

“The real villains in this case are the alleged victims” who bought the homes, built up equity and then used it to live beyond their means, McKesson told the AP.

The people accusing Barnett of fraud knowingly signed sales contracts and then reneged on the agreements, the attorney said.

McKesson also said he didn’t believe the three-strikes law was intended to cover his client’s case.

“No one’s physical safety was at risk,” he said.

Huntsman said the allegations against Barnett warrant a potential life sentence.

“I think what he does is so horrible that it’s much worse than many strikes,” Huntsman said. “A terrorist threat, an ADW (assault with a deadly weapon), a person hits somebody with a stick, might do less damage than what this man does.

“He destroys lives. He targets elderly people whose wealth, accumulated over a lifetime of work, is their home.”

The district attorney’s office has a policy of not automatically seeking third-strike sentencing enhancements if the alleged felony isn’t serious or violent, because judges often reject the option, Huntsman said.

However, the charges against Barnett include two counts of burglary, which under the law qualify as serious felonies.

“When you enter somebody’s home and commit crimes, that’s a very dangerous situation that you’re creating because people often get violent when defending their home,” Huntsman said.

McKesson said a judge had thrown out the burglary charges and the prosecution reinstated them. He said he intends to ask for dismissal of all charges at an upcoming hearing.

Barnett spent nearly five years in state prison after his 1997 burglary convictions.

The victims in the latest case were mostly older residents of South Los Angeles, prosecutors said.

Eddie F. Baker Jr. said Barnett rang his doorbell in 2005 and said he had a plan to help the 72-year-old avoid foreclosure.

“He was telling me that he was a member of the church and that he was a man of God and I was a man of God. So we kind of had a relationship. I trusted him,” Baker testified at Barnett’s preliminary hearing.

“He told me he could help me get my life in order. I could pay all my bills and get my house back and get an A-1 credit rating,” Baker said.

Instead, Baker said he unwittingly had granted Barnett title to the home he had owned since 1969.