A former Springfield man appeared in federal court Thursday for his role in a lucrative catalytic converter theft ring.
Leslie Ice, 38, of Columbia, was sentenced to serve 30 months in prison, followed by three years supervised release. He was ordered to pay $1,355 in restitution.
His wife, 35-year-old Danielle Ice, was sentenced in February to 18 months in prison followed by three years supervised release. She was also ordered to pay $1,355 in restitution.
From January 2020 through 2021, investigators say thousands of catalytic converters were stolen in Springfield and southwest Missouri. Thieves steal catalytic converters because they contain precious metals such as rhodium, palladium and platinum.
The theft ring’s leader, Evan Marshall, was arrested in October of 2021 and sentenced in December of 2022 to five years and 10 months in federal prison without parole.
With their guilty pleas, Leslie Ice and his wife admitted to stealing at least 50 catalytic converters from vehicles and selling them directly to Marshall. Marshall paid Danielle and Leslie Ice approximately $20,000 for stolen catalytic converters.
The Ices admitted to being involved in the theft ring from at least October of 2020 to March 2021.
Man admitted to using a saw to steal catalytic converters
Leslie Ice admitted to stealing catalytic converters from victims in Springfield, Greene County and throughout the state of Missouri. The Ices photographed the victims’ catalytic converters while the catalytic converters were still attached to the victims’ vehicles and texted the photographs to Marshall. If Marshall responded that a catalytic converter was valuable, Leslie Ice cut it from the vehicle’s exhaust system using a battery-powered reciprocating saw.
In total, seven people from the catalytic converter theft ring were indicted. Investigators say the thefts cost victims at least a million dollars in auto repairs.
The defendants include Marshall, the leader, two mid-level participants who knowingly bought stolen catalytic converters and four thieves. All seven pleaded guilty, and Leslie Ice was the last to be sentenced.
Eric Kaltenbach, 38, received the biggest punishment of any of the thieves — 54 months in federal prison plus three years of supervised release. He was ordered to pay $2,625.70 in restitution to the known victims, as well as an imposed money judgment of $17,374.21. The $20,000 total equaled what investigators said Kaltenbach is known to have been paid for his part in the theft ring.
Another co-defendant, Enx Khoshaba, was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay $15,986 in restitution.
Marshall pleaded guilty to scheming to defraud as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that resulted in two firearms-related charges and one charge of conspiring to defraud the United States being dropped.
During the nearly two-year span of the theft ring, Marshall’s resale business flourished thanks in part to a network of thieves who sold the auto parts, valuable for their precious metals, to Marshall or to one of several middlemen working for him.
