MADISON COUNTY, Ill. — About a year after his release from prison, Dorynell Thompson found himself on Michigan Public Radio discussing his time behind bars and his newfound life as a free man.
The Kalamazoo resident had served about 17 years for a 1996 federal drug distribution charge, but he had recently become an ordained minister and was working in the community to help kids avoid the criminal justice system.
“That was my first time ever getting in trouble,” Thompson told Cynthia Canty, an anchor and morning show host during the 2015 interview. “I grew up on the rough side of the area where I was living. And I had always kind of been on the streets. I was never the type of guy that would go out and get in trouble.”
But that was far from the truth. Thompson wasn’t who he said he was.
Robert D. Mason III, 53, was taken to jail in Madison County, Illinois after being charged with identity theft, prosecutors say. (Credit: Madison County State’s Attorney)
He’s actually Robert Mason III, Madison County prosecutors say, and he has a violent criminal history in southern Illinois dating back to the 1990s.
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Robert D. Mason III, 53, was taken to jail in Madison County, Illinois after being charged with identity theft, prosecutors say. (Credit: Madison County State’s Attorney)
He’s actually Robert Mason III, Madison County prosecutors say, and he has a violent criminal history in southern Illinois dating back to the 1990s.
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Authorities say he fled Illinois at age 23, while facing an attempted murder charge, and stole the identity of his then-girlfriend’s brother, Dorynell Thompson.
“Robert has kids with my sister — that’s how I knew Robert,” the real Dorynell Thompson told the Post-Dispatch in an interview. “We never had problems or anything. And when that (1994 shooting) happened, I just knew he had fled, but then I didn’t know anything else about it. He was gone, as far as I was concerned.”
Mason lived under Thompson’s name for 30 years in Michigan, where authorities say he promptly embarked on a new life of crime. More than half of his time in Michigan was spent in federal prison on the drug charge.
Still, his fake identity remained undiscovered — even though he did not have Thompson’s government-issued IDs such as a Social Security card or birth certificate.
Mason’s secret was discovered when the real Thompson said he finally persuaded Alton, Illinois, detectives to investigate his claims of stolen identity. He had been turned away for years by state and federal authorities, he said — all while struggling with the financial ramifications of the identity theft. Thompson said he was told at one point that he must be wrong, “because this would never happen.”
When Alton police launched an investigation, Thompson, 55, said he gave police a thick folder of evidence, including Mason’s federal prison mugshot listed under Thompson’s name.
Mason was arrested May 28 on the 1994 charges of home invasion and attempted murder. About a week later, he was charged with identity theft.
“This is very unusual,” said John Davis, a federal prosecutor in Missouri for 23 years who now works as a criminal defense attorney. “In fact, this is the first time I’ve heard of such a thing. For that long of a stretch, in the federal system especially, unheard of.”
How, exactly, Mason managed to live three decades and serve a prison sentence under another person’s identity remains largely a mystery. Federal authorities — the Western District of Michigan and the Federal Bureau of Prisons — would not discuss the case with the Post-Dispatch, including whether Mason’s federal records would be updated to reflect his real name.
As of this week, Dorynell Thompson’s name still appeared in federal court and prison records under the 1996 drug case.
Mason, now 53, sits in Madison County Jail with no bond as his two cases work through the system. He declined to speak with a reporter when reached by jailhouse video call, and his wife, Trina Henry, could not be reached.
A Federal Bureau of Prison spokesperson would say only that when an inmate goes through the intake process at the prison, court information is entered and they are fingerprinted. Citing security concerns, he declined to answer if those fingerprints would have been run against a national database in the late ’90s.
“Justice, for me, would be clearing this whole thing up and getting my life back,” Thompson said. “I’m not wishing bad on him. It’s not in my hands. But I’m so glad it’s over. I’ve been dealing with it for so many years.”
Mason’s early years
Contrary to his account during the Michigan Public Radio interview, Mason was no stranger to trouble when he landed in federal prison in 1996. In fact, he had spent most of his early adult years in and out of the courtroom.
“He was no one to play with,” Thompson said of Mason’s reputation in Alton in the 1990s. “He was a pretty tough guy.”
In 1989 and 1990, two misdemeanor battery charges against Mason were filed but eventually dropped, according to court records. He was also fined in 1989 for a misdemeanor property damage charge.
Things then escalated on Valentine’s Day the next year, at age 20, when he was indicted on two felonies.
In the first, Mason and four other men were accused of shooting at a couple. He was charged with two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm and one count of aggravated assault. Prosecutors also filed aggravated assault, mob action and armed violence charges against Mason and others in a separate shooting, though the latter two charges were eventually dismissed.
He was sentenced in April of that year to four years in prison. It’s unclear exactly how much time he spent there, but by September 1993 he was free and living in Alton with his sister, two brothers and a niece, according to court documents. Mason was a lifelong Madison County resident at that point, save for his time in prison, and he had three children — two of whom were with Thompson’s sister.
Mason faced legal trouble, though, when he was charged with robbing and shooting at a man. He pleaded guilty a few months later, and a judge sentenced him to “intensive supervision probation.”
But his probation was revoked the next year after the shooting that prompted his flight from the St. Louis area.
Prosecutors said in two separate incidents on May 15, 1994, Mason shot a man four times and broke into an Alton woman’s home and threatened her with a weapon. He was charged with home invasion and attempted murder.
But police couldn’t find him to arrest him. Mason had seemingly disappeared, and the case lay dormant for 30 years.
Life in Michigan
By December 1994, seven months after the shooting, Mason was