Tuesday, March 23, 2004
A Winston-Salem man was charged yesterday with illegally getting a state ID card in the name of Darryl Eugene Hunt, and investigators are looking into whether he also got ID cards in other people's names.
Hunt was released from prison in December 2003 after serving about 18 years in prison for a killing he didn't commit. He recently learned that someone used his name and date of birth to run up about $5,200 in debt.
Mitchell Alphonzo Key, 54, of 415 Corona St. was charged by the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles yesterday with obtaining property by false pretense on April 12, 2002.
An arrest warrant alleges that the property was a state ID card in Hunt's name. Court papers also said that Key used the ID to open checking and credit accounts as Hunt.
"He did use Darryl Hunt's name and date of birth," said Inspector Nelson Rhodes of the DMV, who said he is investigating whether Key has obtained ID cards in other people's names.
Hunt said he was glad that someone was arrested.
"I'm just glad that they got him," Hunt said. "I hope I can get my credit cleared up."
Rhodes is investigating whether Key got an ID card or driver's license in the name George Franklin Page. Page is serving a prison sentence for the shooting death in 1995 of Winston-Salem police officer Stephen Amos II.
Rhodes and the N.C. Attorney General's Office say that the Hunt ID theft is the first report they have had of someone stealing the identity of an inmate.
Winston-Salem police are investigating the theft of Hunt's ID.
A Winston-Salem police officer arrested Key on March 15 on charges of obtaining property by false pretenses and possessing a fictitious driver's license. In that case, Key wrote a bogus check to get assorted merchandise from a Hamrick's store, court papers said.
Key apparently has been in the Forsyth County Jail since his arrest. His bond is set at $20,000, and he is scheduled to appear in court April 2.
Key has a long criminal record that includes writing worthless checks, obtaining property by false pretense, forging documents and making false insurance claims.
He also was charged last week by Wake Forest University Police with obtaining property by false pretense and passing a worthless check, court records say. Campus police obtained warrants in 2003 alleging that Key wrote a bad check at the student bookstore on campus on Nov. 24 of that year.
Hunt was cleared in the killing in 1984 of Deborah Sykes, for which he was twice convicted, after DNA evidence led to a new suspect named Willard Brown. The State Bureau of Investigation and Forsyth District Attorney Tom Keith believe that Brown raped and stabbed Sykes by himself.
Hunt realized that an imposter had stolen his identity after his wife, April, filed for her 2003 tax refund and added her husband's name to the return.
A bank sent the Hunts a letter dated March 9 telling them that a bank in Santa Barbara, Calif., had filed a $1,400 claim against April Hunt's tax refund because of an unpaid loan in the name of Darryl Eugene Hunt.
"That was a shock," said Hunt, who had been in prison.
Hunt called the California bank and got the name of the tax preparer for the person who took out the loan in his name. He went to the tax preparer, who made Hunt a copy of the false identification card.
Hunt checked his credit report and found other debts, and criminal charges taken out on him in Guilford County in 2002 for writing bad checks.
• Patrick Wilson can be reached at 727-7286 or atpwilson@wsjournal.com
• Journal reporter Phoebe Zerwick contributed to this report.