A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a New Jersey woman to one year in prison for her role in fabricating a lie that led to the contribution of $400,000 to a GoFundMe account in the name of a homeless veteran.
For the 2018 scam that failed after the homeless man sued her and her then-boyfriend, Katelyn McClure, 32, was also sentenced to pay restitution and complete three years of supervised release.
McClure’s sentencing brings to an end the crazy saga that started when she told a touching tale about a veteran who was struggling financially giving her his last $20 to fill up her tank when she ran out of petrol in the middle of the night. This veteran’s name was Johnny Bobbitt.
She and her ex-boyfriend, Mark D’Amico, set up a GoFundMe page to collect money for the sympathetic stranger, and in the weeks that followed, about 14,000 individuals gave to the cause.
But the story was a ruse. The pair first encountered Bobbitt while he was panhandling by an underpass, roughly a month before she claimed he turned up his last Jackson. McClure made up the narrative in order to persuade funders to “pay it forward.”
The group profited handsomely from their deception up until Bobbitt filed a lawsuit against McClure and D’Amico on the grounds that they had wasted the money on luxury goods, a recreational vehicle, a BMW, and trips to casinos. According to Bobbitt, they only gave him roughly $75,000 total.
D’Amico consented to a five-year prison sentence as part of a plea agreement in Burlington County in 2019. Bobbit was mandated to join a drug rehabilitation center. Both are set for sentencing on various state crimes next month, just like McClure.
2019 saw McClure enter a plea deal in New Jersey Superior Court, admitting to second-degree theft by fraud.
Next month, she will also be sentenced on state counts, which could mean further jail time.
