Man wanted for scamming several students sentenced to jail, probation

This article was updated on August 2 at 5:55 p.m.

A man wanted for scamming several UCLA students in the North Village was sentenced Wednesday to 10 days in county jail and a three-year probation for two scams.

University police said James Webb Hunter III, 38, was known to scam people out of money by pretending to lease apartments on Craigslist for several years.

UCPD arrested Hunter in October on a charge of theft by false pretenses for pretending to lease apartments. He was released four days later after he posted $20,000 bail.

After he was spotted around Bruin Plate following his release, the police put out an alert advising students that Hunter was a known scammer.

In addition to going to county jail for 10 days and being on probation for three years, Hunter will be required to perform 480 hours of community service and pay a restitution fee of $300.

If Hunter pays the restitution fee within eight months, his charge level will decrease from a felony to a misdemeanor.

Hunter has three other pending crimes, including allegedly threatening someone with a knife, said Deputy District Attorney Christine Von Helmolt. However, neither was taken into account during the sentencing because the accusations are still being investigated.

Hunter’s sentencing was pushed for two months until Wednesday to sort out the terms of his probation, such as medical marijuana use and the pending crimes, before the judge made a final decision.

In May, Hunter’s lawyer asked the judge to allow Hunter to use medical marijuana during his probation. The judge rescheduled his case to June, after he found the doctor who gave him the prescription was not licensed. Hunter is allowed to use medical marijuana during his probation because he received a valid prescription afterward.

At Hunter’s June court date, Helmolt said she saw police reports indicating Hunter threatened his roommate with a knife. The judge decided to push the sentencing further to take the alleged incident into account.

This incident did not affect his sentence because police are still investigating what happened.

Hunter and his attorney, James Raza Lawrence, declined to comment after the court case.

Richard Ren and his roommate Edwin Lai, who both graduated last year, said they were scammed by Hunter between March and June after he sublet their apartment.

Ren said in an email statement he put an advertisement on Craigslist looking for someone to sublet the remaining three and a half months he had left in his apartment, and Hunter responded to him later that day.

When Hunter went to go see the apartment, Ren said Hunter claimed to be a graduate student in physics and also introduced his girlfriend, who Hunter claimed was an undergraduate student.

Ren and Lai both said the first month Hunter was in the apartment went without problems, but circumstances changed when he brought his mother to live with them.

“In early April, Hunter moved in his ill mother without notifying me or obtaining my approval,” Ren said in the statement. “That made my roommates very uncomfortable.”

At the end of April, Lai said he and his roommates gave Hunter a three-day notice to leave the apartment, but Hunter allegedly responded by threatening Lai with a knife. Lai said he called the police immediately after the incident and started looking for another apartment.

After moving out of the apartment, Ren and Lai sought a restraining order against Hunter, but a Santa Monica judge denied the order because he did not find enough evidence for one, Ren said.

Hunter did not pay the rent for the last month and a half of Ren’s lease and refused to leave after the contract ended, Ren said. Ren then hired an eviction lawyer to formally tell Hunter to move out, but Hunter left unannounced about two days later, costing Ren about $2,800.

Lai started a Go Fund Me campaign in May intended to pay for the restraining order filing fees and the rent for his new apartment. Since then, he has raised more than $2,500, all of which has gone toward paying his expenses.

After hearing the results of the sentencing, Ren said he is considering suing Hunter for the money he made him lose, the mental stress and inconvenience.

Lai said he thinks Hunter should have gotten a harsher punishment because he lied to and scammed a lot of students.

At the sentencing, Helmolt said if the police find enough evidence to charge him with the pending crimes, police would send the charges to city prosecutors for further investigation.