New Church Man Sentenced in Navy Copper Theft Case

By Linda Cicoira

A 43-year-old New Church man, who stole from the U.S. Navy more than 60 times during his off-hours while he was a civilian contractor at the Norfolk Naval Yard and schemed to fraudently obtain COVID-19 monies, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court to two years in federal prison.

Almount Gunter, also known as Kaz Gunter and Omar Gunter, of Cutler’s Court Road, who worked for the Department of Defense, was sentenced to two years for the theft of government property on Sept 1, 2023, and to two years for wire fraud between May 2020 and August 2021. The terms were set to run concurrently. Gunter will be on three years of supervised release after serving his time.

Judge Jamar K. Walker also ordered Gunter to pay $411,823.60 in restitution. Gunter will be charged interest, and a fine of more than $2,500 if he does not pay the full amount within 15 days. A special assessment fine of $200 was also filed. The defendant was ordered to begin serving his term at 2 p.m. Sept. 2.

Gunter used his access at the Naval yard to take and recycle more than 60,000 pounds of mostly copper cables for which he was paid about $147,000, and another 7,100 pounds of materials, including high-voltage ship-to-shore cables, used to allow Navy ships to shut off engines, reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

His wife, Tyra Giddens, also known as Tyra Heath and Tyra Gunter, pleaded guilty to stealing government property on Sept. 1, 2023. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 25.

More than 20 times, Giddens rented trucks that were used to transport stolen property, court records stated. She allegedly solicited a third person to help Gunter load trucks at the yard, where he was a supervisor.

Court records stated that after Gunter’s arrest, while he was free on bond, he took another 3,000 pounds of copper to a Richmond salvage company and was paid $10,065 in cash.

A government investigation disclosed that between May 2020 and August 2021, Gunter schemed to obtain money through multiple government-backed loans via fake businesses meant to help people during COVID-19. He submitted five loan applications through PayPal and the subsidiary Swift Capital for his alleged sole proprietorship, Almount Gunter’s Cooking and Catering or Almount Gunter’s Cook and Catering.

About six days before being indicted for those crimes in 2026, he pleaded guilty in Accomack Circuit Court to a March 2025 charge of stealing building materials and tools belonging to Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital, where he apparently worked. Judgment was deferred for a year. That charge would have been reduced to a misdemeanor had he remained on good behavior until February 2027. Gunter said he was borrowing the tools and had taken property he believed to be scrap. Restitution of $2,830 was ordered.

In the Navy case, Gunter bought a $5,700 commercial wire-stripping machine, which was delivered through customs to his home in a 40-foot-long shipping container.