DALLAS, TX - A Lubbock woman has been sentenced to 17 years in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining and cashing Medicaid checks intended to pay for care for her severely disabled son.
Judy Terecia Sanchez, 60, was sentenced on February 19, 2026, by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix after pleading guilty in July 2025 to one count of bank fraud.
Judge Hendrix sentenced Sanchez to 204 months in federal prison and ordered her to pay $227,377 in restitution to Texas Health and Human Services.
According to federal prosecutors, Sanchez falsely claimed that a certified nurse aide was continuing to care for her quadriplegic son even after the aide resigned in 2015 after working for only about two weeks.
Court records show Sanchez continued submitting falsified time sheets for more than six years, indicating the aide was still providing daily care.
Medicaid payments were issued to the nurse aide, but Sanchez directed the checks to a post office box she controlled. Investigators said she then forged the aide’s name and cashed the checks.
Authorities said Sanchez’s son suffered from severe disabilities that left him bed-ridden, blind, non-verbal and dependent on a tracheostomy to breathe. His condition required full-time assistance for basic needs such as bathing, hygiene and repositioning.
During sentencing, officials said the fraud was discovered after the son was found in an extreme state of neglect near the end of his life when Sanchez left him unattended.
An emergency medical worker who responded to the scene said that in nine years on the job she had never seen a living person in such severe condition.
Prosecutors said Sanchez’s actions deprived her son of the professional medical care he was supposed to receive through Medicaid.
Investigators reported the victim had severe bed sores and a maggot infestation covering parts of his body.
The case was investigated by the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the FBI Dallas Field Office’s Lubbock Resident Agency and Texas Health and Human Services.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ann Howey prosecuted the case.
