A Berkeley man accused of conspiring to steal or attempt to steal 16 homes and a duplex through fraudulent deeds appeared Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis and pleaded not guilty to two separate indictments.
James L. Townes Jr., 50, was first charged by complaint on June 10, 2025. A federal grand jury later indicted him on June 25 with one count of mail fraud, one count of access device fraud, one count of unlawful production of an authentication feature, four counts of identity theft, and four counts of aggravated identity theft. A superseding indictment filed on Aug. 6 expanded the charges to 25 counts, including conspiracy, mail fraud, access device fraud, fraudulently effecting transactions, unlawful production of an authentication feature, identity theft, and aggravated identity theft.
Townes was also indicted in a separate case on Aug. 6, facing one count of mail fraud, five counts of wire fraud and four counts of theft of government funds…