A-C repairman gets prison in scam

A former air conditioning service technician who used his employment to bilk a customer out of $10,878 was sentenced to 12-32 months in prison.

Vincent James Dillenbeck Mays, 29, admitted to taking money from someone who approached him while he was driving a company vehicle on Jan. 27.

After a few weeks, the customer contacted the owner of the company, who said Dillenbeck Mays wasn’t authorized to quote jobs and no longer worked for him after the vehicle he was driving was totaled.

Dillenbeck Mays was arrested on a Carson City warrant in February and released to Douglas in June. Prosecutor Jim Sibley said he had a significant criminal history with three previous felonies.

According to prison records, Dillenbeck Mays served 12-30 months after he was convicted in 2016 in a stolen firearm case.

“He has not earned probation,” Sibley said at the Aug. 22 hearing.

• Two men on immigration holds who were arrested in May with firearms and false documents will go to prison before likely being deported.

Jose Lopez-Gonzalez, 37, and Jesus Lobatos Paniagua, 44, were arrested during a May 13 traffic stop in a red Honda stopped in downtown Gardnerville.

The driver, Lopez-Gonzalez, was sentenced to 12-30 months in prison for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and a suspended 12-30 months for possession of false identification.

Lobatos Paniagua, whose attorney argued he was along for the ride, received up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

Lobatos Paniagua told District Judge Tom Gregory that if given probation he would go home to Mexico where his wife and three children live.

Prosecutor Nat Smith argued for prison, saying that Lobatos Paniagua had a pattern of carrying concealed weapons.

Gregory pointed out that this was Lobatos Paniagua’s third weapons conviction in issuing the maximum sentence.

Lobatos Paniagua was given credit for 101 days time served.

Counterfeit Mexican identification cards and a forged drivers license were also located, along with large amounts of money and a money counting machine. 

• A Gardnerville woman admitted charges of possession of a controlled substance and spitting on a deputy in Douglas County District Court.

Nina Joy Raymundo, 26, was arrested July 26 on an alternate sentencing violation and was found in possession with methamphetamine.

She was under a court order not to trespass at her mother’s house and was received a jail term that expires Sept. 3. She will then be permitted to go to an inpatient treatment program. She is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 2, but that could be delayed.

 depending on the treatment program.

• A Gardnerville man admitted to abuse of an older person in a Jan. 20 incident involving his 96-year-old mother.

Norman Lester Zierenberg entered a guilty plea to the charge, which can be either a gross misdemeanor or a felony.

Under an agreement, prosecutors and attorney Nadine Morton will recommend Zierenberg be convicted of a gross misdemeanor.

Zierenberg’s mother has since died.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 17.