Matthew Keirans met William Woods at a hotdog cart in the late 1980s, stole his identity, and lived as him for roughly three decades — pulling a six-figure salary as a hospital IT administrator, getting married (his wife didn't know his real name), and having a child who bore Woods's surname. When Keirans stole cars, warrants were issued in Woods's name.
In August 2019, the real Woods — homeless by then — walked into a California bank to report that someone had stolen his identity. The bank called Keirans, who answered the security questions Keirans himself had set up. Police arrested Woods. Keirans told them he wanted to prosecute. A court found Woods incompetent to stand trial — he kept insisting his name was William Woods, not Matthew Keirans — and he was placed in a mental hospital and given psychotropic medication. He was eventually convicted of felony identity theft and false impersonation and sentenced to time served: 428 days in jail plus 147 days in a psychiatric facility, with a court order requiring him to "use only [his] true name, 'Matthew Keirans.'"
Woods kept fighting. A detective took up the case in January 2023, DNA evidence confirmed Woods was who he said he was, and Keirans confessed when confronted. He pleaded guilty, and a federal judge sentenced him to 12 years, calling his conduct "unique, unusual, and egregious" and finding he "manipulated the criminal justice system to prosecute an innocent man." On April 23, 2026, the Eighth Circuit affirmed the sentence, noting that Woods "would not have been in a position where he would have been subject to being institutionalized but for [Keirans's] insistence that [Woods] be prosecuted."
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