A Montecito couple was arrested last Thursday at their second home in Newport Beach and charged with 68 felony counts of fraud, conspiracy, grand theft, and money laundering in what authorities described as a long-running pattern of cons that left multiple victims across four California jurisdictions.
If convicted on all counts, Byron “Rick” Tarnutzer and Vonna Tarnutzer ― 63 years old and 70 years old, respectively ― would face decades in prison. “At their age,” a court filing notes, such a sentence “would be, in effect, a life sentence.”
Both Tarnutzers are being held in county jail on $2 million bail, but prosecutors have asked a judge to leave them no option of release as their case proceeds through Superior Court, which could take years…