While serving prison time in southern Minnesota for identity theft, a woman dipped into her dead mother's bank account and stole $23,012 in Social Security benefits, federal prosecutors have alleged.
Nefertiti Randall, 32, an inmate at the federal prison in Waseca, was indicted Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on a charge of theft of government money or property.
From June 2009 until May 2012, Randall stole money that was being deposited automatically into a bank account that was intended for her mother, but to which Randall had access, according to the indictment.
Randall's mother, Beaudel Crawford, died in June 2009 at age 49 following numerous medical problems, her family said.
Two months later, Randall, of Philadelphia, began serving an unrelated multiyear identity-theft sentence in Waseca after being convicted in federal court. She also was convicted and sentenced in fraud cases in 2002 and 2006.
If convicted in this latest case, Randall faces a potential maximum penalty of ten years in prison.
In 2009, Randall was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison for stealing and using the credit-card numbers of nine cardholders.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
