Inmate posing as a deputy pulled off jury duty scam from Georgia prison cell, feds say
A 32-year-old man impersonated law enforcement officers to orchestrate an elaborate phone scam from his Georgia prison cell, federal prosecutors said.
Now he’s back behind bars.
Andre Deaveon Reese, who was previously incarcerated at Jimmy Autry State Prison near Pelham, Georgia, pleaded guilty in January to wire fraud charges in the Western District of Louisiana — where two of his alleged victims lived. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he’s sentenced May 20.
Reese has been in jail since his arrest in August and could not be reached for comment. A public defender representing him did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Feb. 4.
Prosecutors said Reese used a contraband cellphone to steal thousands of dollars from people by convincing them they missed jury duty and had to pay a fine.
“Unfortunately, there are individuals such as this defendant who have no shame in taking advantage of people who are trusting,” U.S. Attorney Brandon B. Brown said in a Feb. 3 news release . “We encourage the public that when someone calls and gives you a story such as this to be cautious and contact your local law enforcement office to confirm that the story is true before you agree to pay any money to anyone.”
Georgia Department of Corrections records show Reese served roughly five years in prison starting in 2015 on robbery, shoplifting and gang-related charges. He was released in July 2020.
While in prison, prosecutors said, Reese used a contraband cellphone to look up the names, addresses and phone numbers of unwitting victims. He then called them claiming to be with law enforcement.
Reese reportedly told his victims they missed jury duty and a warrant for their arrest had been issued. In order to have the warrant dismissed, he said they had to pay a fine. Prosecutors said he created a fake voicemail on the cell phone identifying the number as belonging to a law enforcement agency to make the calls seem real.
Once an individual agreed to pay, Reese directed them to buy a prepaid card and give him the account number, documents show. He also reportedly said they could wire the money directly to a prepaid debit card account held by him or someone he knew outside of prison.
Prosecutors said two of his alleged victims were contacted one day apart in August 2016.
Reese called the first, a 75-year-old woman, on her home phone and pretended to be someone named Deputy Barnes, according to court documents. He then told her to bring $1,000 worth of MoneyPak payments to the Shreveport Federal Building in Louisiana.
MoneyPak is a prepaid card that can be purchased at Rite Aid, the government said.
Reese gave the woman the location of several local Rite Aids and told her to give him her cellphone number so he could keep in touch while she went to the courthouse, prosecutors said. According to court filings, he ultimately swindled her out of roughly $3,000.
The second victim, a 78-year-old man, was also contacted on his home phone. Reese reportedly repeated the same false claims about missing jury duty, but this time he instructed the victim to buy Green Dot cards from Rite Aid, the government said.
Reese is accused of stealing about $7,000 from the man as a result. The FBI later calculated the loss for both victims to be $9,797, court documents state.
A grand jury indicted Reese on Aug. 11 and he was arrested the following day. Court filings show a judge ordered he remain in custody pending trial.
Reese pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud on Jan. 28.
This story was originally published February 4, 2022 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Inmate posing as a deputy pulled off jury duty scam from Georgia prison cell, feds say."
