The bookkeeper for a Kearny Mesa business that burned down in a fire was convicted Monday of setting the business ablaze to cover up that over $700,000 went missing under her watch.
Carey Alice Hernandez, 46, was found guilty by a San Diego federal jury of setting fire to Off Road Warehouse on March 28, 2019. No one was injured in the early morning blaze.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said that as the Balboa Avenue business went up in flames, surveillance footage captured an SUV with dark wheel rims near the scene of the fire. The same SUV was spotted on surveillance footage near Hernandez's home in Point Loma, prosecutors said.
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One day after the fire, prosecutors say Hernandez sent "misleading texts" to co-workers in order to convince them her SUV's wheel rims were light rather than dark and similarly lied about the wheel rims to agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said that after Off Road Warehouse's owner decided to sell the business in late 2018, the purchaser conducted an audit that revealed $744,621 went missing during Hernandez's time as bookkeeper and controller in charge of the company books and records.
Hernandez was convicted Monday of malicious destruction of building by means of fire, witness tampering, and making false statements. She is slated to be sentenced in July.
