(MONTGOMERY)-- Attorney General Luther Strange announced that a woman has been sentenced to serve two years in prison for stealing $130,000 of retirement savings from her hospitalized mother. Debra Davis pleaded guilty October 18, 2010, to first-degree theft, and on July 28, she received a sentence of 10 years imprisonment, of which she was ordered to serve two years with the remainder suspended and followed by three years of supervised probation.
“A jail sentence is fitting for the crime committed by this woman, who raided her mother’s retirement accounts and then gambled away the money her mother had saved and depended upon for the later years of life,” said Attorney General Strange. “This is a tragic betrayal that continues to cause tremendous suffering and loss for the victim.”
In prior hearings, the Attorney General’s Office presented to the Court the facts of the crime: Davis’ mother, Doris Anderson, of Wetumpka, was hospitalized in critical condition in December of 2008 and remained there until March of 2009. Davis obtained power of attorney for her ill mother, and used it to access and to deplete the entire savings in her mother’s retirement accounts.
Sentencing had been set for April 6, but Davis failed to appear and a warrant was issued for her arrest. She surrendered on May 2, and has been incarcerated since then. In addition to her imprisonment, she is ordered to pay $100 a month in restitution.
According to information presented by the Attorney General’s Office at the time of sentencing, after Davis stole the money from her mother, she lost it by gambling. Furthermore, the mother not only is without her retirement savings, but faces a bill for federal taxes on the money that was stolen from her.
Attorney General Strange commended Assistant Attorney General Noel Barnes, chief of his Office of Consumer Protection, for bringing this case to a successful conclusion. He also thanked the Wetumpka Police Department for its investigation of the matter.
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