Devin Alexander Motley, 22, of Greenacres, Washington, is going to federal prison for stealing a stranger’s identity and blowing through nearly $20,000 at the Coeur d’Alene Casino. The scheme unraveled after tribal and federal investigators connected the dots on a string of fraudulent transactions tied to stolen personal information.
Motley was sentenced to two years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Coeur d’Alene. In addition to prison time, he was ordered to serve one year of supervised release and pay $19,094.15 in restitution to the victim whose identity he hijacked. The judgment was handed down after Motley pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft on May 19, 2020.
Court records show Motley began his crime spree in September 2017, when he stole personal data from an unsuspecting victim and used it to secure a credit card under that person’s name. He then crossed state lines into Idaho, where he unleashed the stolen credit at the Coeur d’Alene Casino on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation, charging over $19,000 in goods and services.
The fraud didn’t go unnoticed for long. The Coeur d’Alene Tribal Police Department, working in tandem with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, launched an investigation that quickly led to Motley. Surveillance, transaction records, and digital footprints painted a clear picture of a calculated scam built on someone else’s identity.
But the casino fraud wasn’t Motley’s only criminal act during that time. Authorities uncovered a broader pattern of illegal behavior, leading to separate felony convictions in Kootenai County, Idaho, for burglary and grand theft. These state charges reveal a defendant deep in a life of deception and theft across jurisdictional lines.
U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis emphasized that federal prosecution sends a message: stealing identities and exploiting them across state lines won’t be treated as petty crime. Motley’s two-year sentence reflects the seriousness of aggravated identity theft, especially when tribal lands and federal statutes are involved. The case stands as a warning to others running similar grifts in the Pacific Northwest.
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Key Facts
- State: Idaho
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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