CHARLESTON, WV (WOAY) – A man already serving a life sentence for beating his wife to death has pleaded guilty to lying about having post-traumatic stress disorder.
Zachary Hess Dawson, an inmate at Mount Olive Correctional Complex, is serving a life sentence following his first degree murder conviction in 2024. He was convicted of beating his wife to death in Alderson on Thanksgiving in 2022.
Starting in 2017, he began receiving benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs for post-traumatic stress disorder he claimed he sustained during his Army service in Afghanistan in 2009. Those claims were untrue, and prosecutors say knew that he was not eligible for the benefits.
He faces a fine of $250,000 and owes more than $300,000 in restitution.
