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Arizona man sentenced for taking $400K in phone scam

Donald Carl Trent, who is already serving a 10-year sentence for kidnapping a teenage girl, was given an extra 1.5 years for running a telephone scam.

PHOENIX — An Arizona man previously convicted of kidnapping a teenage runaway has been sentenced for separate offenses involving a telemarketing scam.

Donald Carl Trent Jr., 52, has pleaded guilty to three counts of unlawful telephone solicitation and was recently sentenced to 1.5 years in the Arizona Department of Corrections. 

Trent is already serving a 10-year prison sentence for abducting a teenage girl he offered a ride in Gilbert in 2017. The defendant took her to his home and the victim told police Trent sexually assaulted her. 

Trent's most recent charges involved a phone scam that would offer bogus business opportunities to victims in Arizona. 

According to the Arizona Attorney General's Office, Trent and two accomplices would additionally offer "recovery services" to victims they had already scammed by promising to recoup the money they had previously stolen from them.

Arizona law requires telephone solicitors to register with the Arizona Secretary of State's Office. The defendants allegedly failed to register before they began soliciting in 2014.

As part of his plea deal, Trent agreed to pay nearly $400,000 in restitution to the victims and $36,600 to the Attorney General’s Office Anti-Racketeering Revolving Fund.

The other two defendants, Chad Everett Allen and Joshua Bouchard, have cases pending in court.  

Maricopa County court records show Trent has previously been convicted of trafficking stolen property and drug offenses.

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