Man, 45, pleads guilty to ID theft

By JIM HALEY

Herald Writer

A man who was charged with using other people’s identity to purchase a home and furnish it pleaded guilty Friday to identity theft and other charges.

He is the second person to be convicted of similar charges following a Snohomish County sheriff detectives’ investigation and an Aug. 17 raid on the home they occupied along the Mountain Loop Highway east of Granite Falls.

Kevin Lawrence Hendrickson, 45, pleaded guilty to five counts including identity theft, forgery, possession of drugs and second-degree theft.

Ten similar counts were dismissed by the prosecutor’s office in exchange for the guilty plea.

In a written statement, Hendrickson didn’t say he did anything wrong. Instead, he said there’s "a likelihood I could be convicted if this case went to trial." He said he wanted to take advantage of the prosecutor’s plea offer to reduce the number of charges and avoid the risk of a longer prison sentence.

He’s scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 2 before Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Anita Farris.

In court Friday, deputy prosecutor Randy Yates told Judge Richard Thorpe that the standard sentencing range is between 17 and 22 months in prison. However, Yates said he will ask for an exceptional sentence of three years in prison because his was a "major economic offense."

That’s the same sentence that Farris earlier gave to the woman who was convicted of five felonies in connection with the same crimes.

Jeanne Pearl Baldwin, 32, went to trial and was convicted by a jury of five of six charges. Farris gave her an exceptionally long sentence.

Mickey Krom, Hendrickson’s defense lawyer, said he will ask Farris to fix a term within the 17- to 22-month range.

Deputies swooped down on the Granite Falls home where Hendrickson and Baldwin lived after they learned it had been purchased in the name of a 19-year-old woman who apparently had some identification stolen. Three vehicles also found at the home were in the younger woman’s name.

The younger woman told officers she didn’t know anything about the purchase of the house and autos.

Officers carted off thousands of dollars worth of household items and tools officers believed were obtained with credit cards in the names of other people.

The investigation included surveillance of two commercial mail establishments in Arlington and Everett where merchandise purchased with bogus credit cards was delivered, court papers said.

Credit agencies told deputies that nearly $18,000 in goods had been purchased with phony credit cards, documents said.

Yates said in court papers there were more than a dozen victims in the scheme, although none of them stand to suffer substantial losses.

However, it will be a severe "nuisance," Yates added, for the victims to make sure their credit is unharmed by Hendrickson and Baldwin.