Vista

A judge sentenced Jo Alice Lochmiller to three years in state prison Tuesday after she refused a probation that would have included restitution payments to victims who lost money in her Vista-based investment firm.

Lochmiller, 58, told San Diego Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Zumwalt she was rejecting the offer of probation, which included a sentence of one year in jail, on the advice of her attorney, Peter Hughes.

Zumwalt told about 20 investors who watched the sentencing that she cannot order Lochmiller to partially pay back the investors because a prison sentence was imposed, but would have made such an order if Lochmiller had accepted probation.

Hughes told the judge that Lochmiller has no assets to pay back about 1,600 investors who lost millions of dollars. Hughes said Lochmiller only has a house to her name and feared that she would lose it if restitution were ordered.

Lochmiller made numerous television commercials with her son, Stephen, now 32, promoting the Lochmiller Mortgage Company, which had offices in Vista, Escondido, Rancho Bernardo and San Diego before it went bankrupt in 1982.

Stephen Lochmiller pleaded guilty last year to 24 counts of security sales violations and was sentenced to four years in state prison.

Jo Alice Lochmiller pleaded guilty to 10 counts of security sales violations. Her other son, Philip, pleaded guilty to 30 counts of violating securities and corporation codes and will be sentenced Friday.