Accused Con Artist Gets 7 Years : Plea bargains: The man pleads no contest to burglary and grand theft charges in a two-year case covering Santa Clarity and Antelope valleys.

A man who authorities said romanced, then stole from women across the country was sentenced to more than seven years in state prison Monday after pleading no contest to crimes committed over the past two years in the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys.

David Frederick Kohl, 42, pleaded no contest to commercial burglary, grand theft auto and grand theft in San Fernando Superior Court. Judge Ronald S. Coen sentenced Kohl, who was about to face trial on 11 felony counts, to seven years and four months in prison.

According to investigators, Kohl was a professional con man who romanced women, then took their money, jewelry and other possessions.

However, only one of the charges to which Kohl pleaded no contest Monday involved a woman he wooed. In a plea bargain, several other charges involving his relationship with women were dropped.

According to court records, Kohl took several thousand dollars worth of jewelry in March from a Santa Clarita Valley woman he befriended. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Greg Palmieri said Kohl lived with the woman for about a year before stealing the jewelry. Palmieri said most of the jewelry was recovered.

Deputy Public Defender Mitch Bruckner said Kohl pleaded guilty to avoid serving more time in prison. Had the case gone to trial, Kohl could have faced 10 to 15 years in state prison on charges that included writing bad checks, embezzlement and stealing blank checks.

Palmieri said Kohl has a long history of wooing lonely women, then stealing money from their bank accounts or racking up huge credit card bills in their names.

Kohl also pleaded no contest to charges that he stole furniture from a storage building belonging to his former employer, Griffin Homes. He also did not fight a charge that he stopped making payments on a car he purchased from a used car dealership.