Man gets 9 years in $1 million scam

Richard Amaro stands before Judge Robert Lewis Wednesday. (Photos by N. SCOTT TRIMBLE/The Columbian)

Richard Amaro, convicted of scamming elderly widow Pamela Leibel out of $1 million, was sentenced Wednesday to more than nine years in prison.

Richard Amaro

Before it was his turn to talk at his sentencing Wednesday, Richard M. Amaro listened to others describe how an elderly widow he convinced to pay him nearly $1 million over five years was left penniless.

Victim Pamela Leibel, 79, did not attend the hearing, where Amaro was sentenced to nine years, two months in prison.

But others told Clark County Superior Court Judge Robert Lewis the details of Leibel’s plight: How Leibel assured a detective that she had enough food because she could take one packet of instant oatmeal and, with a few raisins and a little granola, stretch it into three meals. How Leibel was so excited the day a court-appointed guardian took her shopping and she was able to buy shampoo, because she’d been washing her hair with dish soap.

How, even after it was explained to her that Amaro had taken advantage of her by wildly overcharging for home-improvement projects and convincing her she was investing in properties that didn’t even exist, Leibel still expressed concern for Amaro and his family.

Detective Jane Easter of the Vancouver Police Department told Lewis that in 20 years in law enforcement she’d never seen a more egregious case of theft. Amaro befriended Leibel after knocking on her door in the Fairway Village retirement community in 2002 and offering to clean her gutters. Leibel, whose husband died in 1994, wound up draining her bank account of several hundred thousand dollars and taking a $285,000 mortgage on her home in order to keep paying Amaro. Her home was in foreclosure when Easter learned about the case in late 2007 from Leibel’s concerned friends. Also at that time, a judge appointed a guardian to oversee Leibel’s finances and appointed an attorney who helped Leibel save her home.

Before meeting Amaro, Leibel was set financially, Easter said. Leibel, who doesn’t have children, considered Amaro to be like a son or grandson.

“Her concerns were always for Richard Amaro and his family,” Easter said.

When it was Amaro’s turn to speak, he wiped his eyes, cleared his throat and talked about his own concerns. They were all about himself.

“I’m away from my family and it tears me apart,” said the married father of two young sons.

“I thought I was doing all the right things in my life but it’s obvious I was wrong,” Amaro said. He asked Lewis for leniency.

“I lost everything too,” he told Lewis. “I’ve lost my home, I’ve lost cars.” And if sent to prison for years, he told the judge, he’ll lose his family.

When Amaro, 32, finished, Lewis spoke.

“Your actions are truly despicable,” the judge said. If Amaro truly didn’t realize he was taking advantage of Leibel, “then there’s something seriously wrong with you,” Lewis said.

Amaro was convicted Oct. 31 of 12 counts of first-degree theft, three counts of contracting without a license and two counts of second-degree theft. He took a total of $981,000 from Leibel, making it the largest theft case ever prosecuted in Clark County. The unnecessary projects he did at her home included a $26,000 roof. He also charged $88,000 to put vinyl siding on her cedar home and charged nearly $130,000 to rebuild her deck twice.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Jim David said Amaro apparently spent all the money, on everything from trips to Disneyland to $700 dinners out with friends. There were no assets that the state could seize and sell to try and repay Leibel, David said.

According to state sentencing guidelines, Amaro faced up to four years, nine months in prison. But the jury made special findings that Amaro took advantage of a particularly vulnerable victim and that the crime constituted a major economic offense, clearing the way for Lewis to impose an exceptional sentence.

And an exceptional sentence was fitting, Lewis said, for a predator.

“You knew exactly what was going on,” he told Amaro.

Stephanie Rice: 360-735-4549.