VENTURA : Prior Arrests Added to Fraud Complaint

An alleged con artist who claimed to be the hemophilic son of an Air Force colonel wounded in the Panama invasion would be ineligible for probation if he is convicted on 12 counts of fraud under an amended criminal complaint, which a judge approved Friday.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kenneth R. Yegan approved a prosecutor’s motion to add records of felony arrests in California and four other states to the complaint against David Michael Murray, 31--alias Shi Stone, 17-year-old high school student.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles Roberts said records of these crimes by Murray will be added to the complaint: a conviction for fraudulent use of a credit card in Idaho in 1977; vehicle taking in Ventura in 1980; theft of property under $10,000 in Randall County, Tex., in 1981 and retaliation against a witness in that case and a federal charge of interstate transport of a stolen vehicle from Florida to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1987.

Prosecutors say Murray defrauded Ken and Dorothy Johnson of Ojai of room and board expenses and bilked an Ojai pharmacist out of $1,600 worth of a blood coagulant to treat his hemophilia.

He is charged in Ventura with two counts of grand theft for stealing a bicycle and taking services from a dentist, three counts of petty theft and four counts of defrauding an innkeeper. Murray is in Ventura County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bond. A trial is scheduled for Nov. 5.