U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Wednesday sentenced a St. Louis man who used stolen identities to perpetrate a series of crimes, including hiding evidence for a jail inmate, to three years and eight months in prison.
Bryson Whiteside, 24, was also ordered to pay restitution of $8,735.
Whiteside pleaded guilty on March 23 to the use of a counterfeit access device, aggravated identity theft, two counts of possession of counterfeit securities, and possession of a stolen vehicle.
Whiteside admitted that in early 2021, he used someone else’s name and birthdate, as well as a counterfeit ID, to communicate with Samuel Stoddard, who was at that time a pretrial detainee at the Jennings jail. Stoddard asked Whiteside to remove evidence of criminal activity from a storage facility, and Whiteside then used a second person’s identity to recover the items. After Stoddard was released from jail, he violated a judge’s order by leaving Missouri. Whiteside met with Stoddard in Kentucky, and Stoddard gave Whiteside a stolen car, a counterfeit temporary Illinois license bearing Whiteside’s picture, and a counterfeit Illinois motor vehicle registration card in Whiteside’s name.
On May 4, 2021, investigators found Whiteside in a St. Charles motel with scanners, laptop computers, stolen financial records, and personal identifying information that Whiteside intended to use to produce and use counterfeit checks and fraudulently obtain credit cards.
Whiteside’s co-defendant, Ashley Kelley, 30, of St. Ann, was sentenced last month to three years and one month in prison.
Stoddard is scheduled to be sentenced in September after admitting a series of crimes involving the use of stolen or fraudulent identities.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Missouri Department of Revenue. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Berry is prosecuting the case.
