Carlsbad Investor Scammed out of $250,000

Two Oceanside men who pocketed more than $500,000 by filing grant deeds on vacant, foreclosed homes and sold the stolen homes to investors for cash were each sentenced Friday to three years and four months in state prison. Wesley Anderson Cristman, 28, and Michael Felix Mayfield, 30, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, grand theft and filing false documents.

"There are several victims, including the title insurance companies, the banks, but mostly the victim investors," Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Kaplan said outside court.

Judge Robert F. O'Neill ordered the defendants to pay restitution of more than $600,000 to three victims. Mayfield unsuccessfully asked the judge to sentence him to credit for jail time served so he could go back to work and repay the victims. "I don't have a dollar left to my name," Mayfield said. "All I have is my work. These people will never get paid."

Authorities said the defendants scammed a Carlsbad investor out of $250,000 by selling him a fake deed to a bank-owned property in Vista.

Mayfield sold another man a fake deed to a home in Oceanside for more than $283,000, according to court documents. The defendants' company, Cristman Title and Loan Investments, also held fraudulent grant deeds on homes in San Diego and Escondido, according to court documents.

–City News Service