Jury returns guilty verdicts in case of Lodi-area skydiving instructor accused of fraud

Todd and Francine Turner clutched hands as a courtroom deputy read the first verdict.

“Not guilty,” the deputy said of the charge against Robert Pooley, one of six counts he faced related to skydiving courses he taught at a center near Lodi.

Then, the deputy read the jury’s decision on the second charge: “Guilty.”

Both of the Turners started to cry. A feeling of panic turned to relief.

“That’s all that mattered,” Francine Turner said.

A jury on Friday convicted Pooley of wire fraud and identity theft in a federal courtroom in Sacramento. Although he wasn’t charged with causing the death of Tyler Turner, 18 in 2016, the young man’s fatal fall is what led to Pooley being in court in the first place.

And to the Turners, it brought a feeling of vindication.

“We’ve fought for eight years,” Francine Turner said, “and this is finally a victory for Tyler.”

Prosecutors accused Pooley of defrauding students while teaching courses on leading tandem skydiving jumps at the Parachute Center in 2016. Pooley had suspended credentials and wasn’t supposed to certify students on his own.

He normally taught with Yuri Garmashov, another instructor, who would sign off on the training. But when Garmashov left the country for a few months, Pooley used paperwork pre-filled with Garmashov’s signature. Prosecutors argued this was done without Garmashov’s permission and was meant to mislead the students.

One of those students was Yong Kwon, 25. The South Korean was one of many students from around the world that traveled to the skydiving center to jump and train, often drawn to its low prices. Pooley taught him when Garmashov was out of the country, but his paperwork still had Garmashov’s signature on it.

On Aug. 6, 2016, Kwon led a tandem jump with Tyler Turner, who was skydiving for the first time. During their jump, Kwon had issues with the main and reserve parachutes before he and Tyler Turner slammed into the ground. They became two of at least 28 people who have died at the Parachute Center since 1985, an investigation by The Sacramento Bee found.

Kwon’s paperwork was not submitted to the proper organizations at the time of the jump, a federal investigation found. That meant he was not certified to lead it, as is required under federal law.

The Turners both directed blame at William Dause, the center’s founder and face of the business. The center was raided by federal authorities in 2018, but Dause has not been charged with any crimes related to the incident.

In 2021, prosecutors indicted Pooley. Defense attorneys argued prosecutors were charging Pooley because he was the only person affiliated with the center that they could pin a crime on.

The jury on Friday convicted him on all but one of the charges he faced. U.S. District Court Judge William Shubb later granted a motion by defense attorneys to dismiss two of the charges. That left Pooley guilty on two counts of wire fraud and one count of identity theft.

Pooley is set to be sentenced in August and faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the wire fraud counts. The aggravated identity theft charges each carry a mandatory two-year sentence.

Pooley’s defense attorneys plan to keep fighting the remaining guilty charges. “Serious questions remain about whether Mr. Pooley’s actions were criminal,” public defender Mia Crager, said in a statement. While tragic, she added, the deaths of Tyler Turner and Kwon were not relevant to the charges against Pooley.

Attorneys spent much of their closing arguments Thursday trying to convince jurors on the aggravated identity theft counts, which carried extra weight because of the mandatory prison time and were based on Pooley’s use of Garmoshov’s signature on Kwon’s paperwork and that of another student.

It was “the tool Pooley had to commit the crime,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Lydon said during her final plea to jurors.

Pooley, she added, hid his suspension to convince potential trainees they could be properly certified by attending his classes. Students would pay $1,000 or more to attend them.

“He kept this secret and he lied because he had to keep the cycle of classes going” Lydon said.

Crager, during her final argument, said Pooley wasn’t intending to dupe students. During the time that Garmashov was away, they received paperwork that had Garmashov’s signature on it, saying he had personally examined their training. So, she claimed, the candidates knew it was a lie.

She asked the jury: If Pooley was trying to mislead students, why would he give them the paperwork with Garmashov’s signature on it?

“He was not trying to hide it,” Crager said.

Garmashov testified during trial that it was only after Tyler Turner and Kwon died that he found out Pooley was using his signature while he was gone. And that he told Pooley not to teach courses during that time.

Pooley declined to testify on his behalf.

Yet his defense attorneys insinuated Garmashov had a financial incentive not to fess up about such an arrangement. Crager said he was in on the lie with Pooley, a lie that was not meant for the students. It was for the United States Parachute Association, which licenses skydivers and instructors, but has no real authority other than to revoke or suspend ratings, licenses and memberships that it issues.

Following the deaths of Kwon and Turner, the parachute association launched an investigation. It later required roughly 140 people who attended tandem courses taught by either Pooley or Garmashov to take part in more training.

Garmashov pleaded ignorance. He helped draft a letter, which Pooley signed, and sent it to the parachute association. It said Garmashov did not know Pooley was using his signature to certify students.

But the organization, based in Virginia, wasn’t convinced by the letter. It revoked the memberships of Garmashov and Pooley, as well as any licenses and instructor certifications they held. It has not reinstated them.

Garmashov at the time was a world class skydiver, with almost 20 years of experience. Most of his income came from teaching students. He appealed the association’s decision and sued the organization, but those efforts didn’t restore his qualifications. He turned to truck driving to support himself financially.

With Garmashov on the witness stand Wednesday, defense attorney Mia Crager asked: Don’t you want Pooley to be found guilty of stealing your signature so you can show that to the parachute association?

Garmashov replied that he didn’t care about Pooley. “What I care about is my ratings and my livelihood.”

And to get your livelihood back, Crager continued, it would help you if a jury found Pooley had stolen your signature?

“I don’t know if that’s going to help me,” Garmashov countered, in one of several tense exchanges between the two during trial.

Albert Berchtold, the parachute association’s executive director, watched from inside the courtroom.

Garmashov has not been charged with any crimes related to the case.

During her closing remarks, Lydon reminded the jury that Garmashov had not admitted to giving Pooley permission to use his signature while he was away. Even if he had, she said, it shouldn’t matter to the jurors.

His signature, she said, was “at the crux of the fraud.”

It was an argument that stuck.

“I felt like the prosecution put on a well-organized case,” Jennifer Nail, the jury forewoman, said after the verdict was read. Even if the signature had been provided, she said, it was used unlawfully. Jurors deliberated roughly six hours Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.

During that time Todd Turner rubbed his fingers over a picture of his son he stores in his wallet. And Francine Turner looked at her son’s face on her phone’s screen saver.

The Turners are no longer married. But they said their son’s death allowed them to set aside past disagreements.

“To be here together in this moment,” Francine Turner said, “is very poignant.”