Change of plea hearing scheduled for Joplin woman on bank fraud, mail fraud conspiracies

A change of plea hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. June 25 in U. S. District Court in Springfield for Emily Anna-Lee Sturgis, 30, Joplin, who is charged with attempt and conspiracy to commit mail fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, three counts of bank fraud and three counts of mail theft.

Aaron M. Blake, 27, Joplin, pleaded guilty February 13 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud and identity theft. Six other charges against him were dismissed. No date has been scheduled for his sentencing.

The two were initially arrested in January 2023 by the Jasper County Sheriff's Office, which posted the following news release:

On January 26th, 2023 at approximately 2:00 p.m. Jasper County Deputies were dispatched to the area Fleece Lane and North Peace Church Ave in Joplin in reference to a suspicious vehicle that was stopping in front of several houses. The caller gave a vehicle description and license plate to the dispatcher.

Jasper County Detectives who were in the area recognized the vehicle description as a vehicle they were looking for in several reports of stolen mail.

Detectives located the vehicle at Casey’s in Briarbrook of Carl Junction. During the investigation, multiple items of mail were located in the vehicle with various different addresses.

The driver, Emily Sturgis, 30, of Joplin and passenger, Aaron Blake, 27, of Joplin were taken into custody and charges of stealing are being sent to the Jasper County Prosecutor for review. The owners of the stolen mail will be contacted by detectives. This investigation is ongoing, and more charges may arise as it continues.

Jasper County deputies searched the room at the Tara Motel in Carthage and posted the following news release January 29:

On January 29th , at approximately 3:00 PM, Jasper County deputies were following up on information regarding the recent mail theft suspects.

During the investigation detectives searched a room at the Tara Motel located near I -44/Old 66 that both Sturgis and Blake had rented and located opened mail that contained W-2 forms, car titles, financial statements, checks and credit cards belonging to additional victims of Jasper County.