A Holbrook car salesman is facing six years in prison for fraudulent practices that involved at least 50 victims since 2016.
Francisco “Cisco” Lerma pleaded guilty in Navajo County Superior Court to four counts of fraudulent schemes and artifices. He accepted a plea agreement that includes six years in the Arizona Department of Corrections for three of those counts, with the sentences to run concurrently, and a three-year probation sentence for the fourth count following release from the DOC. Seventeen other charges, ranging from forgery to auto theft, were dropped. Once Superior Court Judge Dale Nielson signs the agreement, Lerma will also have to pay an undisclosed amount in restitution to his victims.
A majority of Lerma’s victims were Navajo elders living on the reservation that he defrauded while working for Tate’s Auto Center, Winslow Ford and Hatch Motor Company.
According to court documents, Lerma would pocket customers’ down payments instead of depositing them with the dealership and sometimes took buyers’ vehicles as trade-ins but then would stow them in a secluded parking lot and rent them to other people. There were even incidents where he would deliver a vehicle to a customer that belonged to another person.
The prosecutor was Deputy County Attorney Lauren Ramirez and Lerma was represented by Legal Defender Mariclare Hannah and Deputy Legal Defender Dan Healy.
