Faked emails, fleeing to Mexico: Big Red dealership owner headed to prison as fraud saga ends

At his fraud trial in 2021, Chris Mayes acknowledged it always had been his dream to own a car dealership.

After high school, he at first did construction work for his dad, he said. By late 1994, he was working at Big Red Sports/Imports in Norman as a salesman.

Two decades later, he was the owner and making millions of dollars in profits.

He had other dealerships, too. That success made him charitable. He gave away cars, provided free meals and paid for bulletproof vests for Cleveland County sheriff's deputies.

He also was cheating.

He and two co-workers were convicted at a 2021 trial of conspiracy, wire fraud and other crimes for tricking lenders into loaning millions of dollars to customers who really weren't eligible.

He tried to get out of his conviction in 2022 by helping a co-conspirator flee to Mexico. He had told her he was going to flee, too. Instead, he tried to pin it on her with faked emails in a bid for a new trial.

It didn't work. The co-conspirator, Courtney Wells, was caught in Mexico months later. Mayes in June pleaded guilty in a second case to twice obstructing justice.

Now, Mayes, 52, finally is on his way to federal prison after being sentenced in both cases in Oklahoma City federal court.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot ordered him to serve 10 years and 10 months in federal prison.

The judge also ordered him to pay $1,163,883 in restitution, forfeit $1,018,322 in illegal profits and pay $4,100 in fines and special assessments.

"I'm very sorry about everything," Mayes said at his sentencing in November.

He told the judge he was disappointed in himself for not pleading guilty in his first case, too. "We lost the trial before it ever started," he said.

More: Indictment: Norman car dealership owners charged with wire fraud, other crimes

Judge: Fraud was routine, systematic and blatant

The judge called Mayes' fraud at the dealerships routine, systematic and blatant. The judge pointed out Mayes then "double-downed" on his wrongdoing after the guilty verdict in 2021.

"It has been quite an odyssey from that day to this," Friot said.

The FBI called the punishment "a stark reminder that this level of greed comes with an even bigger price to pay."

"This long-running conspiracy resulted in significant losses to over 20 financial institutions, while hundreds of borrowers were saddled with debt they simply could not afford," said Edward J. Gray, the Oklahoma City special agent in charge.

Wells was sentenced in November to two years and 10 months in federal prison. The third co-conspirator, Charles Gooch, was sentenced to one year and 10 months.

Mayes was the owner of what prosecutors called the Big Red Dealerships — Big Red Sports/Imports, Big Red Kia, Norman Yamaha, Norman Mitsubishi, and Mayes Kia in Ardmore. He lived in Norman.

Wells, 38, of Norman, was the financial controller. Gooch, 65, of Moore, was the compliance officer.

What were the schemes?

One scheme involved "down payments" that lenders were told were from pawned items, prosecutors said.

Mayes and Gooch formed Norman Pawn & Gun in 2015, but it was never real, prosecutors said.

"They didn't plan to make any sales, they didn't hire any employees, they just needed a way to show customers had down payments when the customers didn't have down payments," jurors were told at trial. "These customers didn't have anything valuable to take to a real pawn shop so they needed a fake one, one that could write checks for garbage."

Another scheme involved fake trade-ins. One first-time buyer got $4,800 from trade-ins on "broke-down truck" and a "broke-down motorcycle" that were in his yard and never went to the dealerships, according to testimony at trial.

At least one lender approved questionable loans after a loan officer was bribed, prosecutors said.

A disappearance leads to new trial request

Wells and a boyfriend disappeared in May 2022, after making reservations for a camping trip in Branson, Missouri. After the disappearance, Mayes sought a new trial, claiming she had taken the blame for the fraud in emails.

"By the time you see this I will be gone," one email stated. "I'm not going to prison ... I'm sorry you've lost so much for things we did."

Those emails turned out to have been faked by Mayes.

Wells said she found out from her daughter that Mayes tried to frame her with false documents. She said he had told her he would join them in Mexico. She said she was planning to turn herself in when she was caught.

"I'm disgusted with myself for helping Miss Wells leave," Mayes said at his sentencing. "I didn't make her but I certainly helped her."

Case became issue in Oklahoma County DA election

Mayes' illegal activities became a last-minute issue in the 2022 Oklahoma County district attorney's race won by Vicki Behenna. The Democrat had been one of his defense attorneys.

The Republican candidate, Kevin Calvey, accused her at a debate of being complicit in Wells' disappearance and possible murder. He continued his attack even after Wells was located alive on Oct. 24, 2022.

Behenna called Calvey unfit for the DA job because of the attacks. "Misrepresenting facts is what politicians do. It is not what a district attorney does,” she said.

The judge weighed in on the controversy himself at a hearing and in a court minute days before the Nov. 8, 2022, election. Friot stated in his minute: "The court NOTES that the government does not allege that Mr. Mayes' counsel had any involvement in Mr. Mayes' unlawful activity and further NOTES that it does not appear that there would be a basis for any such assertion."

New allegations aired at Mayes' sentencing

Gooch testified at Mayes' sentencing that the car dealer also tried to talk him into fleeing.

"I finally just told him I wasn't going anywhere," Gooch said. "I was too old. I wasn't going to leave my family."

Gooch also claimed that Mayes wanted the key witness killed. He said Mayes asked him to get a gun.

"I just said, 'OK.' Told him I could but I didn't."

He said Mayes also asked for a silencer and talked of killing the family of the witness.

Mayes admitted that he had probably said a number of times that he'd like to kill the witness. He said that talk was in anger and jest and there was never any plan.

He specifically denied asking for a gun or a silencer.

He also denied ever talking about killing the family of the witness. "I have never said I would hurt a child," Mayes said. "That was out of bounds to make that up."

Mayes and Gooch each had been found guilty at the trial on 25 counts. Wells was found guilty of 19 counts. Before the sentencings, prosecutors dropped six counts — all aggravated identity theft − from those convictions.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Big Red car dealer finally headed to prison for illegal schemes