CHANDLER, Ariz. — A Chandler man has been sentenced to nine years in the Arizona Department of Corrections after he faked having illnesses to collect donations from sympathetic friends.
Christopher Wade Nelson, 52, was sentenced this week in Maricopa County Superior Court after pleading guilty to multiple counts of fraud and identity theft, court records show.
The charges stemmed from two separate criminal cases: one filed in 2017 and the other in 2020.
Nelson's former case involved the defendant telling his old classmates at Scottsdale's Coronado High School he had terminal cancer, resulting in him collecting thousands of dollars.
Prosecutors said Nelson went so far as to fake his own death in order to carry out his schemes.
"The defendant in the 2017 case emailed people pretending to be someone else stating that he had died," prosecutors wrote in a 2018 court filing. "The reality is the defendant’s probation was revoked and he went to prison."
As he was awaiting trial in the 2017 case, Nelson began telling people he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, in order to avoid attending court dates, police said.
Scottsdale police said Nelson forged documents from the Mayo Clinic to fake his diagnosis and convinced people to donate wheelchairs, walkers, and cash to pay for a speech-generating device.
Officers conducted video surveillance on Nelson and captured him washing his car and doing yard work -- chores he couldn't easily complete if he truly had ALS.
DOC records show Nelson had previously served time in prison for criminal impersonation. His criminal history in Maricopa County dates back to the 1990s.
Nelson will be placed on supervised probation for five years following his prison sentence, court records show.