Perrin man sentenced to 30 years for theft

A Perrin man convicted of stealing nearly a quarter million dollars from several businesses and individuals in six counties was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Tuesday.

A Parker County jury convicted Charles Cody Lyon, 47, of an aggregated theft over $200,000 for at least 15 different transactions with victims in Jack, Parker, Leon, Fannin, Collin, Dallas and Jack counties.

Parker County Assistant District Attorney Jeff Swain said the case began when the DA’s office received a hot check case in September 2013.

Initially, there were five bad checks that Lyon issued to pay Poole Chemical for seven loads of liquid fertilizer worth about $73,000 that he had delivered to an address in the Springtown area.

“While investigating the case, we started getting word that there were other people around that were getting ripped off by him so we began looking into that,” Swain said.

Lyon would take the fertilizer that he wasn’t paying for and sell it at a significant discount to farmers. He would make nominal payments on each transaction.

When the DA’s office subpoenaed his bank records they found numerous bad checks.

“It was a stack of hot checks about three-quarters of inch thick,” Swain said. “Pages and pages of hot checks.”

Swain said the difficulty in prosecuting lay in determining theft from business failure.

“If he was running a legitimate business, he would pay the people even if he underpaid them,” Swain said.

It was not until they were able to see the bigger picture that prosecutors, Assistant District Attorney Abby Placke and Assistant District Attorney Susan Pruett, were able to determine Lyon’s actions were criminal.

“He would get $8,000 worth of fertilizer then pay them $1,000. He’d say, ‘I paid them some the rest is a dispute; it’s a civil matter,’” Swain said. “Looking at it from a law enforcement officer’s perspective at a single transaction, it would look like a civil matter. We figure that’s why he was spreading this out across the state, so different law enforcement agencies would only see one transaction. It wasn’t until we looked at it in its totality that we knew it was theft. This is how he’s operating.”

According to a press release issued from the Parker County DA’s office, Lyon also scammed a man from Perrin out of his life’s savings.

“He convinced this gentleman to invest about $82,000 with him in a venture for shooting clays. Once he had all of his money, instead of buying anything with it, Mr. Lyon just pocketed it,” the press release read.

Lyon chose to have District Judge Graham Quisenberry assess his punishment. He had two prior convictions, one for DWI and the other for a misdemeanor theft. The defense called a few members of his family to testify that Lyon was a former United States Marine, a good member of the family and had a good upbringing.

He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay $245,456 in restitution to the victims. A Collin County victim who testified was hesitant to do so because he did not believe it would result him every getting any of the $240,000 Lyon owed him.

“From what we can tell from his bank records, he just spent it on living large,” Swain said. “It looked like a lot of hotels, a lot of food in his bank records.”

Lyon was taken into custody following the jury’s guilty verdict Monday. He is currently in Parker County Jail.

The earliest he will be eligible for parole is after serving a quarter of his sentence.

“He convinced this gentleman to invest about $82,000 with him in a venture for shooting clays. Once he had all of his money, instead of buying anything with it, Mr. Lyon just pocketed it,” the press release read.

Lyon chose to have District Judge Graham Quisenberry assess his punishment. He had two prior convictions, one for DWI and the other for a misdemeanor theft. The defense called a few members of his family to testify that Lyon was a former United States Marine, a good member of the family and had a good upbringing.

He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay $245,456 in restitution to the victims. A Collin County victim who testified was hesitant to do so because he did not believe it would result him every getting any of the $240,000 Lyon owed him.

“From what we can tell from his bank records, he just spent it on living large,” Swain said. “It looked like a lot of hotels, a lot of food in his bank records.”

Lyon was taken into custody following the jury’s guilty verdit Monday. He is currently in Parker County Jail.

The earliest he will be eligible for parole is after serving a quarter of his sentence.