Landscaper with history of fraud allegations charged with scamming 78-year-old woman
LAS CRUCES - A Las Cruces-based landscaper faces fraud charges after sheriff's deputies said he defrauded about $150,000 from a client.
According to jail records, Raiden Castro, 28, turned himself over to police on Wednesday. Castro stands charged with one count of fraud worth over $20,000, a second-degree felony. The charge is Castro's second round of fraud allegations in the last five years. In 2017, Castro pled no contest to 18 counts of fraud. In that case, a court found Castro defrauded a 79-year-old woman and a 93-year-old man out of more than $360,000 from 2015 to 2017.
In this case, Doña Ana County Sherriff's Detective Nathan Jimerson said Castro conned an estimated $149,325 from a 75-year-old woman. Jimerson noted the woman hired Castro as a landscaper from September 2021 until March 2022.
Jimerson wrote in a statement of facts that DASO became aware of fraud allegations when the woman's daughter called deputies. The daughter believed her mother gave Castro $88,000 to fix a broken lawn mower. However, Jimerson noted in the affidavit that Castro collected nearly double that over six months. The lawnmower was just one piece of it, Jimerson said.
The 78-year-old woman told Jimerson that she first contracted Castro in June 2021. Jimerson said the woman paid Castro $1,300 for landscaping services for her property in Doña Ana. When she wanted work done on her daughter's Las Cruces home, she called Castro. From September 2021 to March 2022, Jimerson said Castro requested escalating reimbursements — portions of which Jimerson says Castro would pocket — including:
$33,800 in October and November 2021 for repairs to a trailer
$1,620 in October and November 2021 to replace a lost wallet and money
$46,930 in January and February 2022 to fix a broken lawnmower
$56,350 in March 2022 for more lawnmower repairs
The woman told Jimerson that Castro's requests were consistently convincing and relentless. By the end of March, the woman decided to notify the police. She told Jimerson that Castro begged her not to contact the police. However, she did reach the police on March 25. Jimerson said in his affidavit that the woman identified Castro in a photo lineup as the man she contracted.
Jimerson then contacted Castro, according to his affidavit. He wrote that Castro denied knowing about the fraud allegations. Jimerson added that Castro did not want to speak with a detective because "he spoke to a detective five years ago for the same thing, and he got screwed," as Jimerson wrote.
"Mr. Castro advised he didn't write any signatures on anything or cash any checks, so I was going to have a hard time this time proving he did anything wrong," Jimerson wrote.
Jimerson wrote that he then executed a search warrant on Castro's bank accounts. He said that Castro deposited $81,194.70 into a savings account between September 2021 and March 2022.
On Thursday, Castro was scheduled for a first appearance in the Doña Ana Magistrate Court. It was unclear if he would remain in jail after the hearing. In addition to the fraud charge, the Adult Probation Office accused Castro of violating his probation agreement with this most recent arrest.
A judge had set Castro's probation to end in December. Court records show that Castro agreed to pay $371,304 to two people who accused him of fraud. In that case, Castro allegedly offered his services to customers, befriended them, gained their trust, and began embezzling large amounts of cash.
According to an affidavit, detectives believed that Castro tricked a 93-year-old man into writing 11 checks — under the guise of loans — from December 21, 2016, through January 3, 2017. The 11 checks totaled $45,360. Detectives also believe he embezzled more than $180,000 from a 79-year-old woman in 2015 and 2016.
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Justin Garcia covers public safety for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached via email at JEGarcia@lcsun-news.com.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Landscaper accused of defrauding 78-year-old woman of $150k
