SANTA PAULA : Man Gets 8 Years in Grand Theft, Fraud

A judge on Thursday sentenced a former Santa Paula man to eight years in prison in a fraud case that left a trail of victims in Ventura County and elsewhere.

A jury in December convicted 38-year-old Liam Russell of 36 criminal charges, including 28 counts of grand theft.

Prosecutors had argued that Russell is a professional con artist who cheated several people out of their life’s savings. One such case involved Ron’s RV Sales of Santa Paula, which Russell attempted to buy. Russell gave partial payment to the owners and took control, then looted the company of more than $100,000, prosecutors said.

He also wrote a $250,000 check in July, 1991, as a down payment of a San Diego hospital, but the check bounced. He persuaded the hospital’s board that he was wealthy, although he never had more than $8,200 in the account, according to trial testimony.

Before sentencing, Russell told the court that he planned to appeal on the ground that his attorney was incompetent.

“It was as predictable as the . . . the sun comes up in the morning that he was going to blame his attorney,” Ventura County Superior Court Judge James McNally said before imposing sentence. The judge also said Russell appears to have no skills other than cheating people.

Deputy Dist. Atty. James D. Cloninger and probation investigators had recommended the eight-year sentence, which was the maximum. “It’s in Mr. Russell’s nature to cheat other people,” Cloninger said.

Defense attorney Jonathan J. Kissell asked for probation and called a probation report “the toughest, hardest one I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Kissell said Russell’s only crime was that he is “a lousy businessman.”