HARRISBURG, Pa. — The co-owner of a Dover-area cemetery will serve up to 13 months in prison and two years of probation after a sentencing hearing in U.S. Middle District Court, U.S. Attorney David J. Freed announced Tuesday.
Theodore Martin, 57, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit mail fraud in federal court last year. His sentence represents a downward adjustment of about two years and four months to account for time he has already served for a related fraud scheme in Ohio, Freed said.
Martin and his wife, Arminda Martin, were the owners of Suburban Memorial Gardens Cemetery. They previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud 223 customers out of about $493,000 over a six-year span, beginning around 2010, Freed said.
The Martins admitted that instead of applying customer payments for burial services, cemetery plots, vaults, caskets, and grave markers, they embezzled the money and used it for themselves.
Some of the stolen money was used to gamble at a number of casinos, Freed said.
As part of their plea arrangement, the Martins agreed not to file any direct appeals in their federal cases and to pay $493,000 in restitution.
Arminda Martin has a sentencing hearing scheduled for July 28, Freed said.