A West Virginia man already serving life in prison for murdering his wife pleaded guilty to defrauding the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) of more than $354,000 by falsely claiming he had post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Justice Department.
Zachary Hess Dawson, 39, currently an inmate at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex, pleaded guilty Sept. 2 in federal court to theft of public money. He admitted that he fraudulently obtained $354,813.98 in VA benefits over roughly eight years, from about January 2017 through September 2025, prosecutors said.
Dawson claimed the benefits by asserting that he had PTSD resulting from U.S. Army service in Afghanistan in the summer of 2009.
As part of his plea, he admitted that the claim was false and that he knew he was not eligible for the benefits. Dawson also admitted that he knowingly made false statements to the VA and Veterans Benefits Administration officials to obtain them.
Military.com could not immediately verify his military service history.
Already Serving a Life Sentence
Dawson was in prison for an unrelated crime as the fraud case moved forward.
He is serving life without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty in November 2024 to first-degree murder in Greenbrier County Circuit Court in West Virginia.
He killed his wife, Marissa Dawson, at their home in Alderson, W. Va., on Thanksgiving Day 2022, according to court records and local news accounts.
Those accounts reported that the couple had been married only about a month.
The VA Office of Inspector General investigated the fraud case, which has made pursuing benefits fraud a priority. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia prosecuted it.
What Comes Next
Dawson is scheduled to be sentenced on the fraud charge on Jan. 7, 2027.
He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, per DOJ. He also owes $354,813.98 in restitution, the full amount prosecutors say he stole.
Any prison time imposed for the fraud would be in addition to the life sentence he is already serving. Since he pleaded guilty rather than going to trial, the case will not require a jury.
The VA and its inspector general have said that fraud diverts money from those who earned it. In recent years, the department has pursued a series of prosecutions against people accused of obtaining benefits they were not entitled to.
The Justice Department’s account did not resolve every detail of Dawson’s background.
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