GONZALES - A 24-year-old man was sentenced to 35 months in prison after scamming multiple Walmarts, including one in Gonzales, for more than $300,000, court documents said.

Dondrell Lawayne Smith, 24, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in November. On top of his sentence, he was ordered to pay about $167,803 to the stores he targeted.

Prior to pleading guilty, Smith and Malikk Ziare Strodder were indicted for the conspiracy charge, along with seven counts of wire fraud. Strodder plead not guilty and his case is ongoing.

According to prosecutors, the scheme took place from Sept. 2021 to Aug. 2023, where scammers would use fraudulent "cash cards" with no value that presented like debit or credit cards and use them to buy electronics that they'd later return for cash.

When the fake cards would be declined, Smith and his counterparts would say they were former Walmart employees and instructed them to key in specific sequences into the registers, court documents said. Those key codes would process the transactions as cash payments and gave receipts showing cash tendered. They'd then go to different Walmarts for refunds based on those receipts.

Documents say Smith and Strodder went to the Gonzales Walmart in August 2023, registering seven different transactions totaling $6,500; the two then took the stolen items to a Walmart in Broussard and returned them for cash refunds the next day.