SAN LEANDRO — A South Bay real estate agent has been found guilty of charges including theft and forgery for using a San Leandro man’s identity to purchase a home without his permission, prosecutors said Thursday.
Julissa Gill, 34, was convicted Wednesday by a Santa Clara County Superior Court jury of eight felony counts of grand theft, forgery, identity theft and recording false documents for using the identity of Jose Valdez of San Leandro, said David Lim, a deputy district attorney with the Real Estate Fraud Unit.
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Gill, of San Jose, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 17. She faces up to seven years and four months in prison.
Jurors took less than three hours to return guilty verdicts on all eight counts, Gill said.
The jury determined that in January 2007, Gill used the name, birth date and Social Security number of Valdez to purchase a house on Curtner Avenue in San Jose for Eddy Niquen and his family without the permission of Valdez. Niquen wasn’t aware of the forged ID, authorities said.
Gill, who at the time worked for Century 21 Su Casa in San Jose, also induced other participants to forge the signature of Valdez on the loan documents needed to secure the purchase of the house, authorities said.
Valdez learned of the crime in March 2007 when he attempted to buy a house and found out his name had been used without his permission. Niquen also ultimately ended up losing the house on Curtner Avenue when he was
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unable to afford the loan payments set up by Gill.
“The theft of an individual’s identity for any purpose is disgraceful, but in this case the crime was especially awful because the result was the loss of a home for Mr. Niquen and his family as well as the hardships faced by Mr. Valdez in having to clean up his credit scores,” Lim said.
Gill was remanded into custody by Judge Jacqueline Arroyo immediately after the verdicts were announced.
She is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
