Chinook IRS impersonator gets three years for burglary

A Chinook man who impersonated an IRS agent and stole an estimated $34,500 worth of jewelry was sentenced to three years with the Department of Corrections Wednesday in District Court.

Jody Barnes, born in 1964, was sentenced to seven years with four suspended for aggravated burglary and ordered to pay $1,900 in restitution to First National Pawn of Great Falls. The sentence is part of a plea deal that dropped two additional felony charges.

Court documents say that a Havre resident let Jody Barnes into his home Sept. 1 after Barnes told the man he wanted to know more about a truck the man had for sale.

Once inside, Barnes said he was an Internal Revenue Service agent and requested a tour of the home. The man showed Barnes around until they got to the bedroom, where Barnes took three diamond rings off the dresser. The man confronted Barnes and a physical altercation broke out, the documents say. Barnes ran out of the house and fled in a pickup truck.

A Havre police officer arrived on the scene and noticed bruising on the man’s hand. The man said Barnes might have been carrying a weapon.

The appraised value of the rings, done by J.M. Donoven Designs in Fine Jewelry, came out to $16,500, $14,500 and $3,500.

Rings matching the description of those the man said were stolen were located at First National Pawn in Great Falls. Officers obtained video footage of the rings being pawned.

Meanwhile, the victim said he independently learned that Jody Barnes was who stole his rings. The officer working the case found a booking photo of Barnes and concluded that it was the same man who pawned the rings in the footage.