Opinion ID: 652795
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Donald Gooch.

Text: 16 Donald Gooch, a carpenter, testified that he was having financial problems. Gloria Walker, his bookkeeper, informed him that she could help him obtain additional income. Between July and December 1987, Gooch received two spurious Social Security checks in the mail. The checks were in the amounts of approximately $2,900.00 and $2,800.00. 17 After Gooch received the second check, Walker told him that Steward had arranged for him to get the checks and that Steward wanted $1,000.00 for her services. Gooch gave Walker the $1,000.00 for her to give to Steward. Walker then told him that Steward wanted him to remodel part of her home. Gooch thereafter met Steward for the first time. In return for the remodeling work, Steward agreed to pay Gooch with additional Social Security checks. 18 Between January and March 1988, Gooch worked about fifteen hours a week in Steward's house. Among other things, he installed a toilet in the upstairs bathroom, installed a kitchen countertop, and remodeled both the basement stairs and a sitting room. Soon after he began the remodeling work in January 1988, he received by mail two Social Security checks each for about $2,900.00. In April 1988, after Gooch had completed the work, he received one more check through the mail in the approximate amount of $2,000.00. In all, he received five checks, which the government introduced at trial. Gooch understood that the last three checks he received were in payment for the remodeling work he had done for Steward. 19