The former emergency services director for Carbon County, who was accused of using federal grant money to buy hundreds of items for himself, was sentenced Monday to six months in a federal prison followed by a year of supervised release.
Jason Llewelyn, 47, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge David Nuffer to pay nearly $65,000 in restitution.
“I just wanted to acknowledge my wrongdoing,” Llewelyn said before the sentence was handed down, adding that he was sorry for what he did.
At the time he commited his crime, Llewelyn was a Carbon County sheriff’s deputy working as the emergency services director and also a Helper city councilman.
Llewelyn was arrested and charged in September 2015 in Price’s 7th District Court with 20 counts of misuse of public funds, but that case was later dismissed after the investigation was turned over to federal authorities.
In November 2015, a grand jury indicted Llewelyn on one count of theft from programs that receive federal funds. Llewelyn was on the ballot that month for re-election to the Helper City Council and lost.
Prosecutors allege Llewelyn used a county-issued credit card to purchase items for his houseboat, armory, aircraft and other personal interests with money provided by U.S. Department of Homeland Security grants.
Dave Backman, an assistant U.S. attorney, has cited $500 binoculars as an example of the purchases and said the county “did not want any of these items.”
At a July plea hearing, Llewelyn admitted that he used his county credit card from December 2011 to August 2015 to make unauthorized purchases of more than $5,000 of items for his personal use. He also said in a written statement that he made it appear that the purchases were for the county but they were actually for him.
Under a plea bargain, Llewelyn pleaded guilty to one count of misprison of a felony, an offense that includes the elements of having knowledge of the commission of a felony; failing to notify an authority as soon as possible; and taking an affimative act to conceal the crime.
Defense attorney Vanessa Ramos had asked for probation for Llewelyn, saying in a court memorandum that the case is unique because Carbon County was able to retrieve “a very large portion” of the property claimed to be bought with misappropriated funds.
The county has agreed to try to sell or receive credit for the illegally purchased property and the government will apply those amounts to offset the $64,723 in restitution, according to court documents.
Carbon County Sheriff Jeff Wood, who attended the sentencing, said at an earlier hearing that Llewelyn had shown “total disregard” for his position of trust. He noted that the theft was not a one-time incident, but an offense that occured over and over again.
Llewelyn was ordered to surrender by noon Jan. 12 to the federal Bureau of Prisons, which will designate where he serves his sentence.