Rachel Hardy Johnson is nothing if not audacious. The 35-year-old Mansfield woman currently facing corpse abuse and theft charges in Tarrant County, stemming from decomposed and desiccated bodies found in her funeral home, has now pleaded guilty to stealing food stamps.
See also: Multiple Bodies Found Inside Abandoned Funeral Home
Johnson married her husband, Dondre Johnson, in Las Vegas in February 2010. In April 2010, saying she was an unemployed single mother, Johnson applied for Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. She was approved and began receiving the assistance money. In December 2010, she registered her first business with Tarrant County, "Mighty Dollar Tax" in Arlington.
In the following months she continued to report no income and no spouse to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which administers Texas SNAP benefits, and bought multiple cars with cashiers checks: a 2006 H2 Hummer for $26,000 and a 2008 Mercedes Benz CL S500 sedan for $41,700 on the same day in February 2011 and a 2008 Land Rover Range Rover for $53,000 in February 2012. She registered as the owner of the Johnson Family Mortuary in April 2011.
The whole time, despite being married, owning two businesses and paying more than $120,000 in cash for a trio of luxury cars, Johnson continued to assert her poverty to the state and continued collecting SNAP payments. She said she had no income repeatedly in interviews with the agency.
Now that she's pleaded guilty to the fraud, Johnson faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine as well as paying restitution. She remains out on bond pending her May sentencing hearing.
