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TRENTON
- Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Division
of Criminal Justice Director Stephen J.
Taylor announced that a Cumberland County
man was sentenced to state prison today
for conspiring to set his aunt’s automobile
ablaze so that she could collect insurance
proceeds.
According
to Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor John
Kennedy, Kristopher Wynder, 21, of Vineland,
was sentenced to five years in state prison
by Superior Court Judge Darrell Fineman
in Cumberland County. The sentence is based
on Wynder’s Feb. 16 guilty plea to
second-degree conspiracy to commit aggravated
arson. Wynder was charged in a May 12, 2010
Cumberland County grand jury indictment.
In
pleading guilty, Wynder admitted that between
July 28 and Aug. 4, 2008, he conspired with
his aunt, Cheryl Wynder, to obtain her 2002
Ford Explorer, take it to a remote location
in Vineland, and set fire to the vehicle
so that Cheryl Wynder could collect insurance
proceeds for the vehicle. Kristopher Wynder
carried out the conspiracy by taking the
Explorer to a sand pit adjacent to Oak Road
in Vineland, setting fire to the Explorer,
thereby recklessly placing other persons,
including fire personnel from the Vineland
Fire Department, in danger.
In
pleading guilty, Wynder admitted that he
and Cheryl Wynder entered into a conspiracy
to dispose of her 2002 Ford Explorer and
submit a fraudulent insurance claim since
she was behind in her payments. As part
of the overall conspiracy, Wynder set the
vehicle on fire to destroy it, and to further
the false impression that the Explorer had
been stolen. For his part in the conspiracy,
Kristopher Wynder admitted, he was to be
paid $500.
Cheryl
Wynder pleaded guilty in May 2009 to insurance
fraud and was subsequently sentenced to
five years probation, and was ordered to
pay $8,531 in restitution and a $5,000 civil
insurance fraud fine.
Detective
Terrence Buie and Deputy Attorney General
Paul D. Santangini were assigned to the
investigation. Deputy Attorney General Santangini
represented the Office of the Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor at the sentencing. Acting
Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Kennedy thanked
the Vineland Police Department and the New
Jersey State Police, Bridgeton Barracks,
for their assistance in this investigation.
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