Man Convicted In Decadeslong Identity Theft That Led To His Victim Being Jailed

William Woods was homeless and living in Los Angeles when he learned that someone was racking up debt using his name.

But when he reported his concerns to the branch manager of a bank, he wound up spending nearly two years locked up, accused of identity theft himself. As he continued to insist he was Woods in a desperate effort to clear his name, he was even sent to a state mental hospital and drugged, court records show.

Finally this week, a former high-level Iowa hospital IT worker who had assumed Woods’ identity for decades pleaded guilty to two federal charges.

That man, 58-year-old Matthew David Keirans, who lived in Hartland, Wisconsin, faces up to 32 years in prison for making false statements to a National Credit Union Administration insured institution and aggravated identify theft.

A sentencing date has not been set in the federal case, but Keirans spent 20 days in jail last year on related state charges in Iowa.

Meanwhile, a hearing is set for next week in California to vacate Woods’ conviction, said Venusse Dunn, a spokesperson in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office

father listed on Woods’ birth certificate and tested the father’s DNA against Woods’ DNA. The test proved Woods was the man’s son.

When police confronted Keirens about the DNA evidence, he said: “My life is over” and “Everything is gone.”

Woods has not responded to the AP’s efforts to seek comment via a court liaison who works with victims, and the public defender’s office in Los Angeles didn’t respond to emails.

AP also called people believed to be relatives of Woods, but no one called back. One person texted back a single word: “Stop.”

The news stunned Keirans’ family and friends. Letters written to the court on his behalf described him as a good father, kind and trustworthy.

“I believe Matt’s motivation was simple: to create the family and home he did not have in his youth,” wrote his wife of 30 years, Nancy Zimmer, who described him working to help her as she earned a doctorate in theology.

Their adult son identified himself as “the son of Matthew Keirans, formerly known as William Woods — in either case, known to me as Dad.”