Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Jury Finds Central Florida Couple Guilty Of Grand Theft For Tricking Elderly Widow Into Signing Away Title To Her Home

In New Port Richey, Florida, the St. Petersburg Times reports:
  • To Cynthia and Joseph Clancy, it wasn't enough to spend Eloise Mudway's savings, take her home and isolate the elderly widow from her friends. Mudway didn't die fast enough for the couple, Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis told jurors on Monday. He said Cynthia Clancy told Mudway's new caretakers: "If she gets ill, don't call EMS. Let her die."

  • After hearing a week's worth of testimony and deliberating an hour and a half, a jury convicted the Clancys on Monday afternoon of grand theft of a person aged 65 or older. During a six-day trial that included emotional testimony from Mudway, now 92, the prosecution said the Clancys tricked Mudway into signing over the deed to her Hilltop Drive home. The couple also emptied Mudway's bank account, then sent her to live with friend Jeff Kores and his wife after the elderly widow had a heart attack in 2004.

For more, see Pasco County couple convicted of stealing from elderly woman.

See also The Tampa Tribune: Pasco couple face up to 30 years for bilking elderly woman. DeedContraTheft FinancialAbuseOfElderlyAlpha