In 2019, William Woods, who was homeless and living in California, found someone was using his name to rack up debt. When he tried to tell the bank about his problem, Woods was put in jail for two years for the crime of identity theft. As he continued to tell everyone he didn’t commit identity theft, he was thought to be crazy. As a result, he was put in a mental hospital and drugged.
Five years later, 58-year-old David Keirans admitted to assuming the identity of William Woods. Keirans was working in the IT department of the University of Iowa Hospital. He started using the name William Woods starting in 1990. The two met while working at a hot dog cart together. No records of him using ‘David Keirans’ or his social security number were found after 1988. Keirans obtained a Kentucky birth certificate using Woods’s name.
To send Woods to jail, Keirans first took loans from multiple credit unions throughout California in the name of William Woods, totaling over $200,000. When Woods heard of this, he went to a bank in Los Angeles where Keirans held many deposits. When he asked to close the accounts that were opened in his name, the bank manager called the police because Woods was not able to answer the questions provided for security. The police insisted on Woods’s name being Matthew Kierans, misspelling Keirans’s name.
After denying it, Woods was sent to jail and then to court. He pleaded “no contest” to federal charges in March of 2021. The judge declared Woods “not mentally competent” to stand trial and was ordered to receive medication for his alleged mental problems. Woods spent 428 days in county jail and 147 days in a mental hospital.
After continuing to make multiple claims that he was not a man named Matthew Kierans, Woods was recommended to a local law enforcement agency, where an investigation began. During the investigation, a detective found the man listed on Woods’s birth certificate and initiated a paternal test. The test proved the man to be Willaim Woods’s biological father. This proved that Keiran was an imposter. As the case was investigated further, the details of Keiran’s crime were fully disclosed.
When questioned about his crimes, Keirans initially insisted that Woods was “crazy” and “needed help and should be locked up.” After continued questioning, Keirans admitted to his crimes.
The motivation for the identity theft is unclear, but records show that Keirans ran away from home at 16. He then traveled across the country to San Francisco, where he stole a car. Keirans was arrested in Oregon. Some suspect that Kerians stole Woods’s identity to recreate the family he never had.
Currently, Keirans remains in custody and is waiting to be sentenced. He is currently punishable by a minimum of 2 years in prison and a maximum of 32 years. Kerians can be charged up to $1.25 million, and five years of supervised release may follow whatever imprisonment occurs.
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