DOJ: Man serving life sentence for murder of his wife pleads guilty to stealing over $350K in VA benefits
FILE - The U.S. Department of Justice seal on a podium in Washington, D.C. (Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Department of Justice (DOJ) says a man who was sentenced to life in prison in 2024 for murdering his wife, has pleaded guilty to stealing $354,813.98 in benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) over an eight-year period.
The backstory:
The DOJ says Zachary Hess Dawson, 39, who is an inmate at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex in West Virginia, admitted earlier this month to fraudulently obtaining benefits by falsely claiming he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during his 2009 service with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. Investigators say he admitted that he knew he was not eligible for the benefits, and made false statements to both VA and Veterans Benefits Administration officials to obtain the benefits.
Dig deeper:
Dawson is serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole after he pleaded guilty in November 2024 to first-degree murder in Greenbrier County Circuit Court, West Virginia in the fatal Thanksgiving 2022 beating of his wife in Alderson.
What's next:
The DOJ says Dawson faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000 at his sentencing, which is scheduled for January 7, 2027, and he also owes $354,813.98 in restitution.
The Source: Information in this article was provided by the Department of Justice. This story was reported from Orlando.