California woman and man arrested in Chalmette in stolen rental vehicle, carrying numerous fraudulent credit cards and she had a false driver’s license in the name of a nationally known author in California

A California woman with a history of arrests for identity theft and forgery and a man were arrested in Chalmettte in a stolen rental car and carrying numerous fraudulent credit cards, while she also had a false driver’s license in the name of a nationally known author and speaker in California, Sheriff James Pohlmann said.

Kian Lashawn Cobb. 33, of Emeryville, Calif., is being held in St. Bernard Parish Prison in lieu of bond set at $265,000 and Justin Merriwether-Phillips, 35, of Oakland is jailed in lieu of $100,000 bond.

“This woman has used various names at various times and has multiple felony convictions in several states involving identity theft, forgery and use of stolen access cards,’’ Sheriff Pohlmann said. “She is a traveling criminal who has worked the Interstate 10 corridor from California to Florida.’’

Cobb has lived on the West Bank of Jefferson Parish and also claimed to have lived in Chalmette, the sheriff said.

Sheriff’s detectives handling the investigation have also notified the U.S. Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service because of the nature of the charges, which includes 25 counts of access device fraud involving fraudulent credit cards with re-encoded information, theft of checks from the United States Treasury and identity theft.

Deputies with the sheriff’s Special Investigations Division initially stopped Cobb and Merriwether-Phillips on Sept. 8 as she drove a stolen rental vehicle in Chalmette.

The vehicle stopped in Chalmette had been rented using the stolen identity of nationally known author and speaker Jill Lublin of California and Cobb had a fraudulent California driver’s license with Lublin’s name on it but with Cobb’s photo, the sheriff said.

Follow-up investigation by sheriff’s detectives has also revealed Lublin’s stolen ID and stolen access card data was also used in Wheeler, Texas, in Jefferson Parish and in Destin, Fla.

Both Cobb and Merriwether-Phillips were booked with access device fraud as well as possession of the stolen vehicle, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was also booked with misrepresenting her identity when arrested.

Cobb was also later booked with two counts of theft of U. S. Treasury checks totaling $11,302 and two additional counts of identity theft.

During the investigation, it was determined the two stolen Social Security checks were recently cashed at a check-cashing business in St. Bernard Parish. Both checks were stolen from persons in Alabama and each of the stolen checks were presented with a stolen, forged or counterfeit Alabama identification of the identity theft victim, the sheriff said.

Both Alabama victims have reported their identity as being stolen to their local law enforcement agencies in their area.