Judge says Wisconsin man was ‘callous, ruthless’ in identity theft case that spanned 35 years

CEDAR RAPIDS — A federal judge Friday called a former University of Iowa IT systems lead, who stole a California man’s identity 35 years ago, “callous and ruthless” for his “manipulation of the criminal justice system,” which led to the other man being imprisoned and committed to a mental hospital.

U.S. District Chief Judge C.J. Williams on Friday sentenced Matthew David Keirans, 58, of Hartland, Wis., to 12 years in prison on charges of aggravated identity theft and making a false statement to a credit union. Keirans pleaded guilty to both charges last year.

In court, the judge said Keirans sought the incarceration of William “Bill” Donald Woods, 56, of California, in 2019, telling authorities that he was the “real” Donald Woods and that the California man had stolen his identity when they were both homeless and working as hot dog cart vendors in Albuquerque, N.M., in 1988.

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Woods was charged and wrongfully prosecuted in California for grand theft as a result of Keirans’ manipulation of the criminal justice system, Williams said.

The judge cited the investigative work by University of Iowa police Detective Ian Mallory in untangling who was the real “California Bill,” as Mallory dubbed him, in this stranger-than-fiction identity theft case that has spanned more than three decades.

The judge ordered Keirans to pay a $10,000 fine and serve five years of supervised release following prison.

He also ordered Keirans to pay Woods $6,190 in restitution — which Keirans has already paid — for Woods’ lost income while he was jailed and institutionalized in a mental facility.

The bank account

Williams, in his lengthy explanation for sentencing, said he “flatly rejects” the defense argument that Woods committed grand theft via his own actions, not Keirans’.

Christopher Nathan, Keirans’ lawyer, said the theft resulted because Woods went into a Los Angeles bank in 2019, after he found out Keirans had stolen his identity, and wanted to close the account Keirans had opened in Woods’ name.

The judge said Woods wanted to close the account to avoid paying any debts incurred by Keirans under Woods’ name.

Woods, according to police reports, told a bank official he wanted to make a report for identity theft because he had recently discovered Keirans was using credit under his name and he didn’t want to pay the debt and wanted to close his account.

Keirans did damage to the justice system, the judge said, asking how anyone can trust law enforcement and the courts because California law enforcement and prosecutors didn’t take the time to investigate Woods’ claim?

It shouldn’t have taken this long to unravel the case, he said, noting UI police Detective Ian Mallory did “remarkable work and should be rewarded” for finally figuring out the case.

The judge said Keirans never admitted to identity theft until presented with DNA evidence showing who the real Woods was. Woods was “deprived of his freedom … something we value in America,” and deprived of his name, Williams said.

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Victim ‘satisfied’

Woods, who gave a victim impact statement, said after the sentencing he “felt better now” and was “satisfied” with the results. He added that he should never have spent one day in jail.

“I’m not a criminal,” Woods told reporters after sentencing. “I didn’t do anything to him. The truth is known today.”

Woods said he didn’t know Keirans that well in 1988. They each worked on hot dog carts in the same area in Albuquerque. He recalled the day he laid his wallet on the cart and it went missing. Woods said he knew Keirans had taken it and, when Keirans gave the wallet back to him, he didn’t think about Keirans stealing his identity.

Keirans obtained a Colorado driver’s license under Woods’ name in 1990, according to the University of Iowa police investigation. Court records also showed Keirans was arrested under Woods’ name in Idaho, California and Oregon between 1991 and 1993.

Woods said he wasn’t surprised when Mallory, the UIPD detective, called him and told him Keirans had been arrested for stealing his identity. He thought Mallory was just doing his job, and he didn’t know why other police, prosecutors and court officials didn’t believe him.

Woods said he operated a hot dog cart until 2002. He sold jewelry in the past and once collected jewelry, which he thinks of as “romance” because it makes people happy.

Woods said he hasn’t always been homeless and isn’t homeless now that he has a landscaping job in New Mexico. The owner of the hot dog cart he worked for for years helped him get that job.

New identity

Mallory, who talked to reporters after Woods left the courthouse, had previously told The Gazette how he worked to unravel the case but had never answered why he thought Keirans stole Woods’ identity in the first place.

In the courtroom, Judge Williams said it was “clear” to him why Keirans had stolen Woods’ identity. Keirans had stolen vehicles in Idaho and other states between 1991 and 1992 and had also stolen from his adoptive parents, so he wanted to evade those crimes with a different identity.

Mallory, when asked about the “why” again Friday, said the judge could be right and that there could be several theories. Maybe Keirans did need to go on the run from lower-level crimes, but it doesn’t explain why Keirans used the stolen identity for the next 35 years.

Mallory said maybe it was because Keirans had married and had a child using Woods’ name and worried his family would leave him if he told the truth.

The “why” question may never be answered, except by Keirans, he said.

Sentencing

During sentencing, Keirans didn’t answer the question, saying instead he couldn’t change the past but is a “better (person) today than he was yesterday” and that he will walk out of prison and be better.

His wife and son were not in the courtroom Friday.

He also apologized to everyone he’d caused pain to but didn’t apologize specifically to Woods. “My intentions were not to hurt anyone,” Keirans said.

Mallory previously said it took him about a year of digging and investigative work to reveal the truth about the stolen identity. He combed through hundreds of police and government documents from Wisconsin, California, Idaho, Colorado, Oregon, Kentucky and Iowa to investigate both men’s backgrounds and criminal histories.

He was determined to unravel which man was credible and who was the real “California Bill.”

Mallory said Friday that Keirans was the one who motivated him on the case because Keirans told him many other agencies hadn’t been able to help him get a resolution for Woods stealing his identity. So it made Mallory determined to find out the truth about the two men.

“Hopefully, I’ll never see another case like this,” Mallory said.

The investigation

When the real Woods discovered someone was racking up $130,000 in debt under his name, he reported it to bank officials and wanted to close his account, but it resulted in Woods being arrested in 2019 and convicted in 2021 — serving 428 days in jail and 147 days in a mental hospital.

Woods pleaded “no contest” in exchange for time served and was released. But a judge ordered him to go by his “true name, Matthew Keirans.”

Over the years, Woods made numerous attempts to regain his identity, even contacting local police where Keirans was living in Hartland, Wis. But Keirans continued to tell investigators he was the real Woods and the victim of identity fraud.

In January 2023, when Woods learned Keirans was working remotely from Wisconsin for University of Iowa Hospitals in its information technology department, earning more than $100,000 a year, he reported Keirans to the hospital’s security department, and his complaint was referred to the UI Police Department.

Mallory admitted he didn’t know what to believe, but the “facts of the case don’t lie” and he couldn’t dismiss anything.

His efforts started paying off in May and June 2023, and he held the final key to the truth — two buccal swabs containing DNA.

He obtained DNA from Woods’ father in March and then from Woods in May 2023. The results proved Woods was who he had been telling bank, police, court and other government officials for 35 years.

With the results in hand, Mallory went back for his second interview with Keirans in July 2023. Mallory asked Keirans his father’s name, and Keirans accidentally gave the first name of his own adoptive father.

Mallory then told Keirans the results of the DNA evidence, and Keirans said, “‘My life is over”’ and “‘Everything is gone.’”

Keirans admitted he had used Ancestry.com in 2012 to obtain Woods’ birth certificate from Kentucky.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com

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