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Cedar City » Matthew Tillery's wife, Marci, was killed in a plane crash in southern Utah in 2008, leaving the widower to raise the couple's young sons.
Then, a $702,635 insurance settlement he was counting on to provide for his children was stolen by his attorney, Matthew Terry Graff, 38, who police allege spent all the money. But Tillery took no solace Friday in Graff's guilty plea to felony charges related to the missing funds.
"If he's guilty, then why's he walking around fat and rich while I'll probably be evicted from my house," said Tillery after Friday's hearing. "What am I going to do for my kids' Christmas?"
Tillery said that since the death of his 29-year-old wife, he has had to cut back on his work hours with the railroad to raise sons Matt, 7, and Mason, 5.
"Every day we touch or see things that remind us of Marci," said Tillery. "I'm angry and tired of being the nice guy. This money was her legacy, it's what she died for."
Graff pleaded guilty in 5th District Court to two charges of unlawful dealing of property by a fiduciary and one count of communications fraud, all second-degree felonies. Sentencing was set for Jan. 22. Graff faces one to 15 years on each count.
Marci Tillery was one of 10 people killed in a plane crash on Aug. 22, 2008. Tillery and eight of the victims worked at the Southwest Skin and Cancer clinic in Cedar City and were returning
Matthew Tillery and Easton Vigil, who lost his wife Camie in the crash, hired Graff as their attorney in a lawsuit against The Leavitt Agency, which owned the plane.
Their claims were settled, but neither man received any of the $849,000 Graff deposited in a Cedar City bank account. Vigil had $387,500 coming from the settlement.
Graff was charged in May 2009, a month after depositing the settlement money for Tillery and Vigil in a Cedar City bank account. When police obtained a subpoena to view Graff's bank account that month, they found only $69.
At his initial hearing last June, Graff was freed on bond after depositing $450,000 in a trust account with 5th District Court. He was ordered to surrender his passport and the Utah State Bar suspended his license to practice law.
Iron County Attorney Scott Garrett said the $450,000 is tied up in a case involving residents of Montana, who also have a claim against Graff.
Since the charges were filed against Graff, 28 other people have come forward to claim they also never received money in settlements after hiring Garrett said after court Friday that Graff owes almost $2 million.
He said complaints against Graff go back at least seven years and are being heard as part of the case involving Tillery and Vigil, who was not at Friday's hearing.
Garrett said he did not know what happened to the money but that Graff has filed for bankruptcy.
Tillery's father, Roy, expressed frustration after the hearing.
"It's my grandkids' future I worry about," said Roy Tillery. "That money should help them have a better life, like going to college."
