JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Columbia County man arrested late last year on charges including extortion is now accused of taking the identity of someone who died from a brain tumor as a teenager and using that identity for more than 20 years.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court in Jacksonville on February 6 charges Luis Alberto Villazon of Fort White with aggravated identity theft. According to the court document, Villazon was arrested November 15 in Columbia County, on charges that included extortion. On the same day, investigators serving a search warrant at his home took a computer. Investigators reviewing materials on the computer found photos of driver licenses and medical records from the VA medical system, some of which were in the name of a John Franklin Urso.
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According to the court document, there was a photo of a Florida driver license in the name of Luis Alberto Villazon, showing a birth date in the year 1959. There was also a driver license in the name of John Franklin Urso, also showing a birth date from 1959. Investigators said photos on the computer showed VA lab results from 2019 under Urso’s name, and other results from 2022 under Villazon’s name. There were also VA Medical Center operation report records under both names – from 2012 for Urso, and 2021 for Villazon, according to court records.
DOCUMENT: Criminal complaint against Luis Alberto Villazon
Investigators reviewed driver license photos in a state database known as DAVID, for John Franklin Urso, dating back to 1998, and for Luis Alberto Villazon, dating back to 1999, and found all photos appeared to show the same person. Authorities with the Department of Veterans Affairs told investigators there was no record for John Franklin Urso, but that there was a record for Luis Alberto Villazon.
Federal authorities said Villazon was born in Cuba, but became a naturalized U.S. Citizen in 1983. They also located a passport application showing a birth date in 1959, with a photo that investigators said matched the DAVID photos of Urso and Villazon.
Investigators then tracked down possible siblings of John Franklin Urso, and spoke with his sister. According to the criminal complaint, she said Urso died in 1976 at the age of 17, about a year and a half after he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor.
The criminal complaint also details how Villazon obtained driver licenses under his own name and Urso’s name, at times using the Social Security Number that had been assigned to Urso, in applying for the license.
No hearings have been set yet in federal court for Villazon on the aggravated identity theft charge. Columbia County court records show he has a competency hearing scheduled in March and a pretrial hearing scheduled in April for his state charges including extortion.