A Burlington woman who had been charged with second-degree murder in a crash that killed a Southeast High School senior last June has now been sentenced in an entirely different case to two years in federal prison for preparing false tax returns.
Dan Bishop, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, recently announced that Tracey Ann Hernandez, 39, white, female, formerly of 127 Bannockburn Run, Burlington, had been sentenced to 25 months in prison, plus one year of supervised probation, for preparing false tax returns. She pled guilty to one count of aiding and assisting in the filing of a false tax return and was ordered to pay $2.1 million in restitution for what Bishop described as a “tax refund scheme.”
“Agents with the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division (“IRS-CI”) began investigating Hernandez for preparing and filing IRS false income tax returns for her clients,” Bishop said in a release. “Hernandez acted as a ‘ghost preparer,’ meaning she did not sign her name on the returns she prepared for clients.
“IRS data shows that Hernandez prepared and filed over 200 false Forms 1040, United States Individual Income Tax Returns for calendar years 2021 and 2022,” the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of N.C. said. “The false returns reported, among other things, fraudulent education expenses and refundable education credits, as well as fraudulent Schedule Cs (Profit or Loss from Business) and credits for sick and family leave for certain self-employed individuals.”
D.A.: Hernandez will be prosecuted for Southeast High School senior’s death in June 2025
Meanwhile, Alamance County district attorney Sean Boone confirmed for The Alamance News Wednesday afternoon that Hernandez is the same person who was charged with second-degree murder following a fatal crash that killed Southeast High School senior Lily Rose Hahn four days before she was to have graduated from high school on June 6, 2025.
Boone said his office will work with federal authorities to figure out how to proceed with the Alamance County charges against Hernandez.
“We will work with them to get her back to be dealt with in state court,” Boone told the newspaper Wednesday afternoon. “We are not going to compromise the prosecution of that case just because of this. The federal process makes no difference to our approach.”
Hernandez was also charged with 10 other offenses in connection with the crash that killed Hahn last June.
An arrest warrant that had been served on Hernandez on June 6, 2025 alleged that she was driving while impaired when she crossed the center line on N.C. Highway 87 and fatally collided with a vehicle driven by Hahn, 18, of 4056 Greenhill Road in Snow Camp, shortly after 12:00 a.m. on Monday, June 2.
Hernandez was also charged with: four counts of felony negligent child abuse resulting in serious physical injury to her four children (two sets of twins, ages three and five), all of whom were in the car at the time of the crash; one count of felony serious injury by vehicle to her five-year-old child; driving while impaired; driving left of center; and 10 traffic infractions, including four counts of allegedly failing to properly restrain her children in their car seats, according to the court file.
Those charges remained pending in Alamance County criminal superior court at press time. Hernandez is currently being represented by Raleigh attorney Jonathan Trapp, according to her Alamance County court file.
Trapp previously represented Issiah Mekki Ross, 21, black, male, for his murder trial in Orange County superior court earlier this year. Ross was charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the September 2022 shooting deaths of Devin Clark and Lyric Woods outside Mebane; he was convicted of second-degree murder in Clark’s death. The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict in Woods’ death, and that case against Ross remains pending in Orange County superior court.
Trapp most recently appeared in Alamance County court on behalf of Hernandez on January 28, 2026, according to the court file.
Another attorney who’d previously represented Hernandez, Matthew Suczynski, had filed a motion on June 30, 2025 asking for bond to be set at “a reasonable amount” so his client could be transferred to a facility that could adequately address her medical needs, including injuries sustained during the accident.
Alamance County senior resident superior court judge Andrew (“Andy”) Hanford denied the motion for bond, ordering Hernandez to remain in custody at the Alamance County jail, based on an order he entered on July 14, 2025.
Hernandez was also charged with DWI, failure to maintain lane control, and reckless driving to endanger in Orange County in February 2025, after she allegedly drove through construction barrels in a work zone along I-40 and collided with a deputy’s unmarked patrol car while it was stopped. That case also remains pending in Orange County district court, the court file shows.
[Story continues below special subscription offers.]
MORE COURTS AND CRIME NEWS THAN YOU’LL FIND ANYWHERE ELSE. SUBSCRIBE TODAY:
ONE YEAR/$50; TWO YEARS/$89.
Federal tax expert: Use caution when hiring a tax preparer
Meanwhile, Tom Jones, an expert in federal tax law, who previously worked as a revenue agent for the Internal Revenue Service and currently owns an accounting firm in downtown Graham, said that the tax fraud case against Hernandez offers a cautionary tale for consumers.
“She was a ghost preparer – basically doing taxes out of her trunk,” Jones told the newspaper Wednesday afternoon. He urged consumers to do their homework in order to understand who they may be hiring to prepare their taxes as the filing deadline approaches.
The IRS assigns legitimate tax preparers a “Preparer’s Taxpayer Identification Number (PTIN),” which is something consumers can ask for if they’re skeptical about whether an individual is qualified to prepare tax returns, Jones explained. “The vast majority of tax preparers” apply to the IRS for a PTIN to assist with preparing federal returns, he said.
Though the release that Bishop’s office issued two weeks ago gave few details about how Hernandez perpetrated the tax fraud, Jones said that “ghost preparers” often use TaxSlayer, TurboTax, and any number of other tax preparation software programs to file returns.
The IRS warns that taxpayers should avoid hiring tax preparers who don’t sign a return, which could be a red flag signaling questionable behavior or worse. The IRS also provides a directory through its website to help taxpayers locate credentialed tax preparers who are qualified to assist with filing returns.
By comparison, “IRS Enrolled Agents” hold the highest level of credentials issued by the IRS and either have to have worked for the federal revenue service as an examiner, an auditor, a special agent, or in a similar position and/or have passed an exam to qualify as an enrolled agent to file returns and represent taxpayers in all 50 states, Jones told the newspaper.
Bishop did not disclose where Hernandez is currently incarcerated but said the investigation remains ongoing.
