A Poway man who hid his mother's death for more than three decades in order to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in government benefits was sentenced Friday to two years in federal prison. Donald Felix Zampach, 65, collected $830,238 meant for his mother following her death from pancreatic cancer in 1990. According to the U.S.
' Zampach's defense attorney, Knut Johnson, argued that longstanding severe mental illness contributed to Zampach's continuation of the fraud. Johnson wrote in his sentencing papers, 'This is not the case of a person who stole $800,000.00 and bought frivolous items — it is the case of a mentally ill man unable to care for himself who could not leave his childhood home and so continued to receive modest retirement checks.' Special Assistant U.S.