CAMDEN – Mark D’Amico, who launched a phony GoFundMe campaign to help a homeless veteran and then spent much of the money on his own pleasures, traveled “a road to hell … paved with good intentions” according to his defense attorney.
“Initially, (his) intentions were pure and altruistic,” the lawyer, Mark G. Davis, asserted in a filing before D’Amico’s sentencing hearing Friday in Camden federal court.
Authorities say D’Amico and his then-girlfriend Kate McClure falsely portrayed their victim, Johnny Bobbitt Jr., as a Good Samaritan in need of a helping hand.
Their feel-good story, told with Bobbitt’s cooperation, raised more than $400,000 in donations.
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And D’Amico expected all of the donations would “aid and benefit Bobbitt in his road to recovery,” Davis claimed.
But more than $50,000 in gifts and cash given to Bobbitt only funded the former Marine’s drug addiction before D’Amico cut him off, the lawyer contended.
And then D’Amico surrendered to the lure of his own vices, Davis said.
The former Florence man “placed himself squarely in the middle of a media frenzy, with unfettered access to the remaining monies and a debilitating penchant for risk taking and gambling,” Davis said in a sentencing memorandum for U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman.
The memo urged Hillman to sentence D’Amico to prison time below the advisory guideline range of 21 to 27 months.
“So although the government would prefer to label Mr. D’Amico as a swindling con-man and call it a day, it simply was not that cut-and-dry,” Davis said.
But a federal prosecutor, arguing for a sentence near the top of the range, said it was that simple.
“D’Amico began the scheme with lies, furthered it with lies, and ended it with lies,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Bender wrote in his own sentencing memo.
He noted D’Amico and McClure initially concocted a story in November 2017 that Bobbitt had given his last $20 to McClure when her car ran out of gas near a Philadelphia casino.
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Their GoFundMe appeal urged donors to help Bobbitt establish a better life, and the couple posted fraudulent updates to promote more giving as cash flowed in, Bender noted.
When media reports showed Bobbitt was again homeless in the summer of 2018, D’Amico and McClure “tried to maintain their story that at least $150,000 to $200,000 of the funds were sitting in an account for Bobbitt’s benefit, but that story soon unraveled, too.”
In fact, Bender said, “All of the money was gone by March 2018.”
“D’Amico and McClure spent most of it on themselves,” the prosecutor’s memorandum noted.
“They went on trips together, they bought luxury items, and D’Amico invested in cryptocurrency,’ it continued.
“Most significantly, he gambled away a majority of the money individuals donated to GoFundMe for Bobbitt’s benefit,” said Bender.
In arguing for a lighter sentence, Davis said D’Amico was now a different person — a family man with a 2-year-old daughter, and an independent construction contractor with “a first-time freedom from gambling and other vices.”
He told Hillman that D’Amico had “managed to fulfill many of his stated promises and goals to Bobbitt” — buying him a trailer and two vehicles with a combined value of about $30,000, providing a $25,000 checking account, and giving him $500 to $1,000 per day.
But Bobbitt allegedly converted that generosity into drugs and stole from D’Amico, Davis’ memorandum said.
“Yes, (D’Amico) acted as a gatekeeper to the funds and eventually cut Bobbitt off completely,” the attorney wrote. “But at that time, it seemed to be the right course of action, given what Mr. D’Amico had personally observed and experienced with Bobbitt.”
The judge sided with the prosecution, imposing a 27-month prison term and $20,000 fine on D’Amico, who previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud.
The defendant also was ordered to pay restitution and undergo gambling, drug and mental health counseling.
McClure has admitted guilt to the same crime, while Bobbitt has pleaded to a money-laundering conspiracy.
They are to be sentenced on the federal charges next month.
D’Amico and McClure also have pleaded guilty and await sentencing on state charges — misapplication of entrusted property for him, theft by deception for her.
Bobbitt pleaded guilty in March 2019 to a state charge of conspiring to commit theft. He was admitted to the drug court program, which offers in-patient treatment for addiction.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Jim Walsh covers public safety, economic development and other beats for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal.
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