CEDAR CITY — An accused serial fraudster was jailed in Cedar City after recently being arrested on suspicion of multiple felony theft charges.

Shandon Gale Young, 42, was arrested May 31 by Iron County Sheriff’s deputies following an investigation of suspected felony theft by deception.

According to the probable cause statement filed in support of his arrest, Young had agreed to sell a butchered beef, half a pig and two freezers to a buyer for $2,750.

Despite being paid electronically via Venmo and CashApp, Young allegedly did not deliver the promised items, prompting the buyer to file a report with the sheriff’s office.

“The victim had contacted Young multiple times to obtain either the items or the money back but Young continued to make excuses as to why he could not provide both,” the arresting deputy wrote in the affidavit.

Young’s arrest came a little over one month after he was arrested on April 29 on a similar charge involving the purported sale of 4,000 rounds of ammunition and a rifle. Although the would-be buyer paid Young $2,300 in cash for the gun and bullets, he never received the items, according to the charging document filed in that case.

After several unsuccessful attempts to meet with Young, the reporting party contacted the sheriff’s office, stating that Young had made several excuses as to why he was unable to either provide the purchased items or refund the money. 

And, in a new case filed just this week, Young has been charged with yet another count of third-degree felony theft for allegedly defrauding a business of approximately $1,800. In that case, Young allegedly agreed to build a custom-made stainless steel desk but failed to follow through on the promised labor or materials.

When contacted later by the complainant, two suppliers that had been named by Young both denied having any knowledge or prior dealings with him. The Enoch Police officer who filed the probable cause statement in the most recent case recommended that Young continue to be held without bail in Iron County Jail.

“Shandon and his family had till the end of the month to be out of the house they were at, per jail phone calls,” the officer wrote in the June 7 affidavit, adding, “They have already left the home and his family was attempting to find a way to bail him out. I believe that if Shandon were to bail out, he would flee the court’s jurisdiction.”

A search of Utah court records reveals Young’s extensive criminal history includes multiple felony convictions as well multiple pending cases out of Washington County.

In one case dating back to 2014 that was reported in St. George News, Shandon Young and his wife Katina Young were arrested in connection with a scheme to defraud several businesses.

Both pleaded guilty in February 2015 to class A misdemeanor counts of theft and communications fraud, with Shandon Young also pleading guilty to a third misdemeanor charge, for forgery.  The couple were ordered to pay a total of $8,200 in combined restitution to the six victims 

Court records also show numerous financial judgments against Shandon Young in small claims court, along with multiple debt collection awards and bankruptcy filings.

Just last month, on May 2, 5th District Judge Matthew L. Bell awarded a default judgment of nearly $90,000 to a couple who had filed a lawsuit against Young, his wife Katina and two of  their children, claiming they had paid for various ranching-related goods and services that never materialized.

According to the lawsuit, the items involved in the various transactions included fencing materials, a skid steer tractor, a squeeze chute, several horses, a mule, a goat and 35 head of miniature cattle.

Additionally, the lawsuit states that Young and his family had claimed they owned a 1,200-acre farm capable of generating 1,000 bales of alfalfa, when in fact they owned no such property, The lawsuit also notes that Young did deliver a few of the promised items, namely one horse, three beef calves and 42 horse panels, purportedly to help maintain a facade of legitimacy.

Shandon Young has multiple cases still pending in Washington County, including the following (information in the allegations is summarized using the various probable cause statements):

• A theft by deception case dating to January 2022 involving the payment of $2,400 in cash for two horses that were never delivered.
• A November 2021 case wherein a buyer reportedly paid $9,000 in cash to Young to have a well dug and surrounding fencing installed in the Beryl area, but no goods or services were ever rendered. The previous month, the same buyer also had paid Young $1,200 for packaged beef and pork that never materialized. 
• A November 2020 case involving the sale of fake deer and elk hunting licenses to nine individuals, from whom Young had collected a total of $23,300. According to the arrest affidavit, the reporting complainant contacted the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources when he began to suspect the hunts that he and the others had paid for were fraudulent, “because Young was never able to provide an exact location of where the hunts were to occur and continuously provided excuses as to why the permits were not available.”

Young faces 18 third-degree felony charges in connection with the hunting permits case: nine counts of theft and nine counts of communications fraud.

Young’s next scheduled court appearance is a waiver/roll call hearing on June 13 before Judge Ann Marie McIff Allen in Cedar City’s 5th District Court. Young also has a resolution hearing scheduled for June 27 before 5th District Judge Jay Winward in St. George for his pending Washington County cases.

This report is based on statements from court documents and law enforcement officials and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

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