July 21--RICHMOND, Va. -- A Lunenburg man who attempted to collect $773,174 in life insurance by reporting his own death with fake documents was sentenced to 30 months in prison Friday.

Jamie Dwayne Long, 38, pleaded guilty last March to one count of mail fraud and was facing a term of 27 to 33 months under federal sentencing guidelines when sentenced by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson.

According to court documents, Long admitted that on Aug. 18, 2010, he posed as the brother of his ex-wife -- the policy beneficiary -- and called his insurance company to report that he died in an auto accident.

He asked what needed to be done to file a claim and then asked the insurance company to send the necessary paperwork to a post office box opened by Long in Richmond and used his own telephone number as a contact number.

Among other things, as part of the scheme in which he would have created a false death certificate, he ordered a vital records seal with the logo of Prince Edward County from a company in New Mexico.

Long, wearing ankle chains and a blue jail jumpsuit, read a long statement to Hudson on Friday prior to being sentenced. He paused at times because of tears.

He told Hudson he suffered from depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder, and went on to list a number of other problems: his income was failing and he did not know how he would support his three children; his son had been severely injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident; his marriage ended in divorce; and his father had died. Long also said he had nearly died in a helicopter crash.

"I was terminally ill with emotional cancer," he told Hudson. Earlier his lawyer had asked Hudson to sentence Long to 12 months and one day. Long told Hudson, "I'm sentenced to a lifetime of guilt and shame."

Hudson told Long he was taking his difficulties into account, but said he had to weigh them with the knowledge that "you have lied to a very long list of people over the last few years."

"That was a very, very calculated attempt to defraud the insurance company," said Hudson.

fgreen@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6340

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