2 Convicted Of Posing As San Bruno Blast Victims
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) -- Two residents of the San Francisco suburb that was rocked by a fatal gas pipeline explosion have been convicted of trying to pass themselves off as victims to secure relief aid.
San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe says 42-year-old Lisa Justin and 44-year-old Sonya Smith applied for new identification cards using addresses from the San Bruno neighborhood hardest hit by the blast.
Wagstaffe says the two women actually lived about five miles from the blast zone where eight people were killed.
Justin and Smith pleaded no contest to robbery and perjury charges on Tuesday. As part of a plea deal, they face maximum sentences of two years in state prison.
The San Mateo County Times reports that five other people are facing charges of posing as blast victims.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
