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Man gets 2 years for swapping fake diamonds for real ones

Posted at 1:33 AM, Aug 11, 2019
and last updated 2019-08-11 01:33:04-04

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A federal judge in Michigan has sentenced a man to two years in prison for swapping fake diamonds for real ones at jewelry stores in several states.

Twenty-eight-year-old Demetrius Eugene Woodson was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Kalamazoo. Woodson, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the U.S., was also ordered to pay more than $89,000 in restitution.

MLive.com reports Woodson and a co-defendant took part in the scheme involving jewelry stores in Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and New Jersey. They had operated out of Toledo, Ohio.

Police said Woodson would swap cubic zirconia diamonds for real diamonds while store clerks were distracted.

Police caught Woodson and his co-defendant the same day they took $7,000 worth of diamonds from a Kentwood, Michigan, store.

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Information from: The Grand Rapids Press: MLive.com, http://www.mlive.com