Iowa contractor gets 20-years prison term
Lawson pleads guilty to 4 felony burglary counts
For years, contractor Jeremey Lawson took advantage of numerous customers in Iowa and several other Midwest states, defrauding them out of thousands of dollars for jobs he never completed.
But this week, the longtime felon received a stiff prison sentence of 20 years in connection with a crime spree in Bloomfield, where he and another felon burglarized businesses and robbed local Amish while they were in church on a Sunday in March 2023.
Lawson, 48, and alleged accomplice Michael Diedrick II broke into several businesses, including Wagler Metals, Hwy. 2 Discount Groceries, Midwest Truss Co. and KW Welding, as well as two residences. At one of the homes, according to court documents, a boy and two teen girls, one in a wheelchair, hid in a back bedroom as Lawson and Diedrick broke in.
Lawson was sentenced for four felony burglary counts, as well as for being a felon in possession of an offensive firearm, under a plea agreement reached with Davis County prosecutors.
In July, Diedrick was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted on four burglary counts and one of control of an offensive weapon by a felon.
County Attorney Rick Lynch could not be reached Tuesday for comment. Nor could Lawson, who has lived in Bloomfield and nearby Drakesville.
Court records show Davis has a decades-long, documented history of taking large advances from customers for construction jobs and then walking away.
He’s been the subject of news stories since a December 2014 Watchdog probe found that he and his brother, Marvin, had racked up criminal convictions, civil court judgments and allegations of construction fraud and theft in at least four counties in Missouri, four in Illinois and 19 in Iowa, including Polk.
As a contractor, Lawson been a top generator of complaints over the past two decades to the Iowa attorney general’s Consumer Protection Division, even though a judge barred him in 2015 from taking further advance payments
for any construction jobs. In the case that prompted that ruling, Lawson owed more than $102,000 in restitution tied to 25 victims in connection with court action initiated by a consumer protection lawyer in then-Attorney General Tom Miller’s office.
One of the last times Lawson was imprisoned was after his sixth conviction for OWI in 2018. With two sheriff ’s deputies in pursuit, Lawson sped and drove drunk in Davis County, crashing into a stop sign and plowing into a bridge before flipping his Chevy Silverado, according to a criminal complaint against him. Two of three passengers were taken to the hospital.
Lawson received a 10-year sentence, but he wasn’t imprisoned until he violated probation. He spent only a year behind bars, Iowa Department of Corrections and court records show.
Davis County Attorney Rick Lynch said the latest convictions are all tied to crimes involving people Lawson victimized.
“I think it’s a good resolution and it’s going to protect society for a while,” Lynch said.