BELLINGHAM – A Bellingham man convicted of stealing mail and identities was sentenced last week to two years behind bars and another two years on probation.
Frankie Mazzei, 28, pleaded guilty after a search warrant uncovered at least 113 pieces of stolen mail at his home in the 2400 block of McKenzie Avenue, according to charging documents. Among the stolen items, officers found credit cards, a photocopy of a man’s driver’s license, a vehicle registration, personal checks and a check belonging to a local Montessori school.
http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html
Two of Mazzei’s associates – his newlywed wife, Trisha Mazzei, 26, and friend William Jay Hagen, 33 – were arrested in November as the investigation unfolded.
Hagen is accused of stealing a $4,400 check mailed from Alaska to Bellingham. The victim has an almost identical last name. The check was cashed into Hagen’s account, according to charging documents. The search of the Mazzei residence at 2482 McKenzie uncovered paperwork from a First National Bank of Alaska account, the same one as the stolen check.
On Sept. 27, a Bellingham couple came to police with a letter they received from Citibank. The letter thanked them for opening a credit card account with a $3,000 limit, an account they never opened.
Police obtained a search warrant for Trisha Mazzei’s Yahoo email account and found she had applied for a credit card account under the victim’s name a few months earlier, according to charges filed in a separate case.
The search warrant also confirmed another woman’s report: The victim discovered someone had changed her address to the Mazzeis’ residence, then made 38 charges on her credit card in the summer, prosecutors allege. About $1,550 had been spent at local stores and on mail orders.
A business called “Trisha Daycare” listed its address at Trisha and Frankie’s residence.
Trisha Mazzei’s maiden name is Macmillan. She and Hagen are awaiting their trial dates.
Frankie Mazzei now has 14 felonies on his record: five counts of identity theft as well as financial fraud, bail jumping, unlawful possession of a firearm, forgery, taking a motor vehicle without permission, second-degree burglary, second-degree possession of stolen property and two counts of first-degree theft. Four of those he racked up as a juvenile.
On a probation report filed just before his sentencing, Mazzei said that within the past year he has used methadone, heroin, methamphetamine and Ecstasy on a daily basis.
Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Chuck Snyder ordered him to serve a drug offender sentencing alternative: 25 months in prison, 25 months out, if he stays away from drugs and alcohol.
