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PROVO — A Cedar Hills man convicted of participating in an armed standoff at his former home, where he was living illegally, told a judge Thursday the past three months he has spent in jail has humbled him.
Paul Cromar asked for mercy from the judge during a sentencing hearing.
"I'm completely broken and humbled and anxious to be done with this," he said.
During his first scheduled sentencing in August of 2022, Cromar called an arrest warrant against him an "act of war" and accused the court of "man steal(ing)" him and selling him into slavery. The sentencing was delayed because he had not cooperated with Adult Probation and Parole so there was no pre-sentence report, and he attended that hearing remotely when he was ordered to appear in person.
Cromar attended Thursday's hearing remotely from the Davis County Jail and said it's been a grueling six years since the incident began, when the IRS first filed a lawsuit against him saying he owed $1 million in taxes, and he is ready to move on and try to salvage his life.
Cromar, 64, was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison for burglary, a second-degree felony, and a term of zero to five years for wrongful appropriation, a third-degree felony. But the judge suspended the prison sentences and instead ordered Cromar to serve one year in jail and 36 months of probation. He was also given credit for time already served.
Fourth District Judge Christine Johnson said she was relieved to see a "marked difference" with Cromar on Thursday.
She said she did not want to sentence someone like Cromar to prison, but thought she might decide to because he expressed previously he had no intention of being on probation. Cromar confirmed Thursday he is willing to be on probation, and said he would "welcome (probation) above jail, absolutely."
Cromar said the 99 days he has spent in jail have been "really painful and harrowing."
"We've been completely destroyed by this experience. We've lost our home, we've lot the contents of our home, reportedly everything was emptied out into seven dumpsters and taken to the landfill. We've lost our neighborhood, our friends there, our associations with them," he said Thursday.
Cromar and his wife were convicted by a jury on July 1, 2022, of burglary and wrongful appropriation. The charges stemmed from a 2020 armed standoff with police after investigators say the couple had been living illegally for eight months in a Cedar Hills home the IRS had seized, and owed more than $1 million in taxes.
On Sept. 24, 2020, officers from multiple agencies entered the house and found weapons, sandbags and wooden boards placed in potentially tactical positions to keep people from getting in and bomb making materials, according to charges. Cromar said Thursday, however, that he did not know how to make a bomb and those were emergency storage items.
Deputy Utah County attorney Jared Perkins said in the early stages of the case, he proposed a plea in abeyance to Cromar, where he and his wife would plead guilty to class A misdemeanors, because of their lack of criminal history. But that deal was rejected.
"It didn't need to go this far. Unfortunately, Mr. Cromar took it this far," he said.
Perkins said he believes Cromar's change of behavior Thursday is real, but he believes Cromar's behavior is a public safety risk, and prosecutors are concerned by his online presence and associates who might do something "dangerous or rash" with or without Cromar's direction.
He said a SWAT team was used to evict Cromar from his home, which is not the normal process, but was done because he had invited armed militia to the home, and caused concern to neighbors. Perkins said throughout the case Cromar has used court filings and other writing to intimidate and harass people involved in the case, and invited people to take action against the government.
The man who purchased the home at a federal auction spoke as a victim at the sentencing hearing. He said tenants have left the house after protests, break-ins, and people knocking on the door telling them the house belongs to the Cromars. Cromar denied Thursday that he had gone to the home or encouraged others to go.
The current owner of the home said Cromar still does not show remorse. He said they tried multiple times to get him to come and take his personal items from the home before emptying it.
"I think he's going to continue to fight to get his house back, but he's never once taken responsibility for what started this whole thing which is his own tax evasion," he said.
Barbara Cromar, Cromar's wife, has not been scheduled for sentencing, and a warrant for her arrest issued in 2022 is still in effect.
Although he wants everything to be finished, Paul Cromar's court experience is ongoing. He recently requested the federal court dismiss charges against him for attempting to evade taxes, corruptly obstructing the administration of the internal revenue code and forcible and attempted rescue of seized property — the home involved in this armed standoff. Those charges were filed in April.
He is accused of not filing any income tax returns from 1999 through 2005 while operating Blue Moon Productions, LLC, a freelance film and media production company.
Cromar said Thursday he hopes to get his home back through using the legal system.
