Salt Lake City man sent to prison on fraud charges

A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Jamis Johnson to five months in prison on his conviction of 27 fraud-related charges after crediting him with the nearly four years he's spent in state prison on a separate conviction.

U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups said the Salt Lake City man, convicted by a federal court jury in 2011 after a nine-day trial, has been incarcerated in the Utah State Prison for 43 months for violation of parole from the earlier conviction. He was given credit for that time because the parole violation resulted from the federal charges, the judge found.

Before pronouncing the sentence, Waddoups said a 48-month sentence was appropriate given Johnson's reduced role in the real estate fraud scheme involving some 72 homes purchased with straw buyers, inflated appraisals and false information on loan applications.

But the judge reduced the 48 months to five in order to give Johnson credit for time served on the state conviction.

Waddoups said that while there had been sufficient evidence for the federal jury to convict Johnson, he was discounting the credibility of three key witnesses for purposes of sentencing.

Two others who Waddoups found had directed the scheme already have been sentenced.

Ronald W. Haycock Sr. pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 5½ years in prison. Lyle Clay Smith also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 4 years 8 months in prison.

Johnson was convicted of securities fraud in 4th District Court in Fillmore in 2007 for an investment deal involving a dairy farmer who ended up losing his business.