A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of a man who stole the identity of a dead infant and lived under that name for over three decades. The Ninth Circuit issued a unanimous decision on Tuesday, stating that Walter Glenn Primrose—who had used the name Bobby Edward Fort since 1987—could not legally claim ownership of another person’s identity, no matter how long it was held.

Primrose had been convicted in October 2023 on charges of identity theft, passport fraud, and conspiracy against the United States, alongside his wife, Gwynne Darle Morrison, who used the name Julie Lyn Montague. Both received 34-month prison sentences. During trial and appeal, they argued that Primrose had assumed Fort’s identity for so long that it had become his actual identity. The appeals court dismissed this argument entirely.

U.S. Circuit Judge Danielle J. Forrest, a Donald Trump appointee, wrote in the 14-page opinion that one cannot obtain legal rights to another’s identity through prolonged use. The panel, which included Jay S. Bybee (a George W. Bush appointee) and Ryan D. Nelson (a Trump appointee), ruled that identity is tied to personhood and cannot be transferred, regardless of duration.

Forrest wrote: “There is no basis in law or reason for us to conclude that one may adversely possess the identity of another person.” A person’s identity is a part of, not separate from, their personhood. And no matter how long one uses another person’s name, they simply do not become the other person. The court also rejected Primrose’s claim that he could not have committed passport fraud or conspiracy to make false statements under the same logic.

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Forrest noted that Primrose had falsely listed his name as Fort and his birth year as 1967 on a Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reports System (DEERS) identification application, certifying the information as “true and accurate” despite knowing it was false. Earlier, U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi, an Obama appointee, had denied their requests to legally change their names to Fort and Montague before sentencing. She stated that their belief in the stolen names as their “true” identities held no legal weight.

The case originated from a 2022 criminal complaint revealing an investigation into their identities. Records showed the couple had attended high school and college together in Texas, married in 1980 under their real names, and remarried in 1988 under the stolen identities. They had obtained Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses, and passports using the names of two infants, individuals who would have been a decade younger than their actual ages.

Primrose had further embedded himself in the stolen identity by enlisting in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1994 under the name Fort, later gaining security clearance. After retiring from the Coast Guard, he worked for a Department of Defense contractor until his arrest. Investigators also found military maps and coded documents in their West Oahu home, initially suspecting Russian espionage, though prosecutors later ruled that angle out.

During their trial, the couple’s financial and educational achievements under the assumed identities were documented, but the court emphasized their lack of remorse. The Diplomatic Security Service confirmed they had lived under the false names for over 30 years, yet this did not change the legal reality: identity theft remains a crime regardless of how long it goes unchallenged. The Ninth Circuit’s ruling establishes that identities are not assets to be claimed through prolonged use.