ODU Student Pleads Guilty to Stealing Banking Info, Forging Checks in 2023

NORFOLK, Va. — Michiah Kadafi Owens, 26, was convicted on Wednesday of check forgery, uttering (using) a forged check, credit card theft, and attempting to obtain money by false pretenses after he pleaded guilty to transferring money to himself from another man’s phone and cashing stolen checks last year.

In October, a man acquainted with Mr. Owens through work reported to law enforcement that, after letting Mr. Owens borrow his phone on one occasion, he later discovered Mr. Owens used that opportunity to set up a banking app account on the phone from which Mr. Owens transferred the man’s money to himself. Following that report, Old Dominion University Police officers searched Mr. Owens’ campus residence and found numerous checks and debit cards belonging to a different victim. Officers located that victim, who told them that he had lost his wallet earlier in the year. Further investigation revealed that Mr. Owens successfully forged and cashed two of the checks between August and December.

On Wednesday, Mr. Owens pleaded guilty to the four felony charges, and Judge Robert B. Rigney accepted his plea with no agreement to his sentence. Mr. Owens is docketed for sentencing on May 24.

“Fraud costs honest people every day, and for victims it often creates lasting headaches as they try to recover their money and correct their credit reports,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “Whether one steals with a gun, a check, or a phone, we will work to hold accountable the people who commit these crimes.”

Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Gordon C. Ufkes is prosecuting Mr. Owens’ case on behalf of the Commonwealth, and ODU Police Detective Destini S. Williams led the investigation.

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