Standing next to her, Gilbert said Valenzuela never grasped that the accusation against him was a “serious charge.”

The fact the owner of the stolen identity was still living came as news to Valenzuela and his family.

Valenzuela said in court that he bought the Social Security number from someone who told him “it’s not going to hurt anyone.” After the hearing, his niece said Valenzuela and the rest of his family believed the true owner of the number was dead.

To her surprise, “they interviewed me at Social Security and told me the man was alive,” Graciela said.

The person who sold the number told Valenzuela “I’m going to help you with these papers. This guy already died, he was more or less your age, two years difference,” Gilbert said.

“So he stayed longer and longer, started working. He put money into Social Security, a lot of money,” Gilbert said.

While working in Wasco in the 1970s and 1980s, Valenzuela would buy broken-down motorcycles in the United States and take them to Culiacan, Sinaloa, where he would repair and sell them, Gilbert said.