95-Year Old Grandma's Extreme Pain While Dying In Hospice Care Not Enough To Keep Grandson From Stealing Her Home By Conning Her Into Signing Over Deed: Prosecutor

In Hallandale Beach, Florida, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports:

• The grandson of a deceased Hallandale Beach woman is accused of getting her to sign over her property while she was on her deathbed.
  
  During a first-appearance court hearing on Wednesday, Thomas Glenn Epps was ordered held on a bond of $25,000.
  
  Epps, 50, of Plantation, was arrested [] and charged with exploitation of the elderly and filing false documents, according to the Hallandale Beach arrest report filed in the case.
  
  "What he's charged with is stealing a house from his grandmother who was 95 at the time [and] in hospice," assistant state attorney Richard Sherman said at the hearing. "His grandma was in extreme pain and would not even be capable of understanding what was going on."
  
  Mary Helen Hyatt died on Jan. 13, 2014, while in hospice care. Her health had been failing for years but it took a sharp drop in the months before her death, the report stated.
  
  Just 12 days before she passed away, Epps had his grandmother sign a warranty deed giving him possession of her $66,970 home in the 300 block of Southwest 10th Terrace in Hallandale Beach, Sherman said.(1)
  
  "She was on heavy medication at the time she signed the quit claim deed," he said. "We also have a sworn statement from the notary who says that he did not notarize the victim's signature."
  
  Epps also filed several documents claiming he was Hyatt's closest living relative when she had an adult son and daughter living in North Carolina, police said.
  
  A woman claiming to be Epps' girlfriend of 18 years told the judge Wednesday the house belonged to Epps' mother.
  
  "The house was in his mother's name, not his grandmother's name," said Denise Spivey.
  
  Broward Property Appraiser records show the house passed from Hyatt to Epps.
  
  The Hyatt's hospice nurse and social worker told investigators that she was heavily medicated and in no condition to make any kind of judgments or financial decisions. They doubted she even had the strength to hold a pen to sign any documents transferring her home, detectives said.

Source: Grandson duped dying Hallandale Beach woman, investigators say.

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(1) The $66,970 value listed here is probably the value obtained from the local tax rolls. Highly unlikely that the fair market value of any house in Broward County, Florida could be that inexpensive.