Disbarred lawyer gets prison term for ID theft

Iric Vonn Spears will also have 10 years of probation after his 10-year sentence in prison is over and must pay more than $100,000 in restitution.

CLEARWATER - A once-promising Pinellas County lawyer was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday after he was convicted of stealing the identity of one of his clients.

Iric Vonn Spears, 38, was arrested in December 2002 on charges he used the client's identity to buy a $250,000 home in Atlanta and to open credit card accounts on which he charged almost $8,000.

Spears was charged with 16 counts of grand theft, mortgage fraud, identity fraud and forgery. He pleaded no contest to the charges in January, and faced up to 135 years in prison on all counts, said assistant state attorney Bob Lewis.

The minimum sentence he faced was just more than six years in prison.

Judge Douglas Baird on Thursday sentenced Spears to 10 years in prison, to be followed by 10 years of probation. He also ordered Spears to pay restitution of more than $100,000, Lewis said.

Investigators said Spears assumed the identity of Reginald Dalton, whom he met at a social function in August 2000.

Dalton soon hired Spears to represent him in an employment contract dispute with a former employer. Spears obtained personal information and employment documents from Dalton and then used those items to steal Dalton's identity, investigators said.

Months later, Dalton was called by a bank, which told him it was foreclosing on his property in Atlanta. Dalton knew nothing about the property.

Investigators said Spears had purchased the $250,000 property in Dalton's name, then attended the closing, posing as Dalton's attorney. Spears received more than $63,000 after the closing for legal services, arrest affidavits state.

Spears began practicing law in Florida in 1992 and was once an up-and-coming lawyer, Lewis said.

"Everybody said this guy had a lot of promise," Lewis said. "He had every opportunity."

But Spears ran into problems with the Florida bar. He was suspended in 1998, then was disbarred in 2001. According to the bar, Spears failed to hand over funds that a client had earned in a settlement.

-Chris Tisch can be reached at 445-4156 or tisch@sptimes.com

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