WICHITA COUNTY (KFDX/KJTL) – The first of three suspects arrested in a forgery and identity theft operation conducted in a Wichita Falls apartment has pleaded guilty.
John Wade Williams is sentenced to five years in prison for fraud and possession of other people’s identity information.
Special Investigators from the Texas Department of Public Safety and officers from the Wichita Falls Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit issued a warrant to search an apartment in Fountaingate Apartments on March 22, 2022.
Investigators said the apartment was being used as a base for criminal activity and had been leased to Christopher Prince and also used by two other suspects, Williams and James Robert Dickerson.
Officers said they found stocks of computer-generated blank checks and forged checks and personally identifiable information from more than 40 victims.
Investigators said police reports were filed as early as November 2021 about the illegal activity. Dickerson has an appeal hearing set for February 17 and has signed a plea deal for 4 years in prison.
Prince was arrested later in a special DPS investigation into an alleged meth distribution operation in which officers say they kept his vehicle under electronic and mobile surveillance on US 287 between the Metroplex and Wichita Falls and claim they found more than 1,000 grams of methamphetamine in the vehicle. His case is pending.
