Phila. man gets 16-33 years for bilking vet out of $95,000

For much of the last four years, Shelton Thomas assumed the identity of Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams in a bizarre scheme to bilk more than $95,000 from a World War II veteran whose lawn he mowed.

On Monday, Thomas' world could not have gotten more real - sentenced to 161/2 to 33 years in prison by a Philadelphia judge for draining the life savings of 93-year-old Raymond Campbell.

Thomas, 49, who knew Williams and his family growing up in the same Cobbs Creek neighborhood - but who looks nothing like the city's top prosecutor - sucked in his breath as Common Pleas Court Judge Rayford A. Means imposed the maximum possible sentence.

"Damn," Thomas uttered, shaking his head in disbelief, and then adding, "What?"

Defense attorney Kathryn Coviello Cacciamani said she would file a motion asking Means to reconsider.

In February, Thomas pleaded guilty to criminal trespass, several theft charges, extortion, identity theft, and impersonating a public servant. He did not have an agreement on his potential sentence.

Campbell, an Army engineer who served in Europe and the South Pacific and then worked in federal agencies for 39 years, testified that Thomas began mowing the grass at his Cobbs Creek Parkway home in June 2011 for $20 a cut.

By March 2014, Campbell told Means, he had given Thomas his life savings and maxed out his credit cards trying to pay off what Thomas called fines and court costs imposed on him for illegally dumping grass clippings and other trash in a nearby commercial Dumpster.

"He kept coming back to me time and time again," Campbell told Means. "He said he needed money for court fees, $600 a month."

According to Assistant District Attorney Jan McDermott, Thomas buttressed his tale by telephoning Campbell posing as Williams and several judges, telling Campbell that Thomas was "deputized" to accept payments.

"He assumed that the person he was talking to really was Mr. Williams," McDermott said.

Thomas apologized to Campbell and Williams, who was in court with daughters Taylor, 15, and Hope, 11. Thomas told Means he was desperate for money to help care for his seriously burned sister, a niece who had lost her legs, and his children.

"He was like a grandfather to me that I never had in my life," Thomas said, adding that he never realized how much money he got from Campbell.

"It just got out of hand," Thomas added. "I had bills to pay."

Cacciamani urged a state-guidelines sentence - 15 to 21 months in prison - and said Thomas had a minimal criminal history and never threatened Campbell.

"He's not a violent man," she added.

McDermott, however, said the guidelines did not properly reflect the financial damage Thomas wreaked on Campbell. She asked Means to impose a long prison term, saying Thomas never mentioned his relatives' health problems in his statement to police. At that time, McDermott said, Thomas said he defrauded Campbell because he needed money for rent and to pay for his wedding.

"We all know that Mr. Campbell is not going to get a dime of his money back," McDermott said.

After the hearing, McDermott said that Thomas was arrested with $2 in his pocket and had apparently spent all the money.

Williams said the entire case was sad, and recalled playing with Thomas as children, when Williams' father, a schoolteacher, ran summer programs at a Cobbs Creek recreation center.

"My father was very, very nice to Shelton, who had seven brothers and sisters," Williams said. "I always thought Shelton wasn't a mean-spirited kind of kid. . . . It's such a shame he victimized this man, and did so by calling and saying it was me."