5 Life Terms Imposed for Real Estate Fraud Based on Fake Deeds

19821 NE 12th Court in Miami. Photo: Google

Robert Allen Tribble Jr.'s long criminal career dates back to 1981 and includes convictions for credit card fraud, credit card theft and forgery in Georgia as well as grand theft in Florida.

His criminal record plus his latest convictions for selling and renting homes he didn't own across South Florida combined for a sentence of five life terms, one for each count. Martin Senior Circuit Judge Larry Schack determined Tribble qualified as a habitual felony offender, warranting the super-life sentence.



Tribble, 55, scammed home buyers and renters out of at least $240,000 by either fraudulently selling or renting homes to them, according to a 2014 affidavit filed by Florida Department of Law Enforcement special agent Eric Jester. An investigation covering four counties showed Tribble searched for homes in foreclosure and used forged signatures of notaries on deeds to make it look like he was the owner.

Tribble changed the locks and advertised the homes on Craigslist for most of 2013. Once he found buyers and renters, he collected mortgage and rent in amounts ranging from $2,500 to more than $20,000, Jester wrote.

Tribble's scam covered 35 homes in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Martin counties with a combined taxable value of more than $7.5 million, the affidavit said.

Two Martin County juries convicted Tribble over the fraud.

A jury last November convicted him of running an organized fraud scheme. Six months before, a jury convicted him of four counts of identity theft. The prosecution didn't pursue other counts charging criminal use of a personal identification based on the convictions in the other cases.

Tribble also was ordered to pay more than $134,000 as restitution to victims as well as court costs and fees.

He was given credit for more than five years already served for other convictions, according to Schack's judgment. In 2015, Tribble was sentenced to the maximum 10 years in prison for a Martin County grand theft conviction.

Tribble, who already is in prison, could not be reached for comment by deadline. He filed a notice of appeal Friday to take his case to the Fourth District Court of Appeal.

In December, Tribble asked the trial court to vacate the guilty verdicts on double jeopardy grounds.

Tribble disputed the organized fraud conviction by arguing the prosecution proved neither that he filed fake deeds or had criminal intent.

"The evidence at trial established that the 'taking of the homes was in the open, with no subsequent attempts to conceal or denial of the taking,' but on the other hand tends to raise a strong presumption defendant had no felonious intent," Tribble wrote in a motion.

Tribble let go of at least two attorneys and hand wrote many of his pro se court filings.

He argued he reinvested all rental income in home improvements. He also raised a good faith defense, arguing he couldn't be convicted because he truly believed he was entitled to take the properties.

"Where the taker honestly believes that she or he has a right to the property, the taker cannot be convicted of theft, even though the taker was mistaken," Tribble wrote in a motion.

Schack rejected Tribble's motions and as well as a request for disqualification for lack of legal sufficiency.

Properties in Tribble's scheme included three-bedroom homes at 2030 NE 186th Drive in North Miami Beach, 19821 NE 12th Court in Miami, 280 NW 102nd Terrace in Plantation and 2460 SE 12th St. in Pompano Beach.