FULLERTON, Calif.—A 71-year-old Irvine woman was sentenced Wednesday to five years in jail for stealing more than $100,000 from her Alzheimer’s-afflicted ex-brother-in-law.
Jackie Marquez was convicted March 17 of eight counts of theft from an elder exceeding $950.
Marquez stole the money from Robert Christopherson, starting when he was 78 years old in 2017, according to court records. The thefts occurred from September 2017 through December 2018, according to prosecutors in court records.
Christopherson wanted to sell his home in Washington state and was suffering from the onset of dementia at the time, prosecutors said. So the plan was made for him to move back to Southern California into the residence of his ex-wife’s sister, Marquez, prosecutors said.
Marquez had lost a roommate at the time so she offered to let him live there for $1,345 a month to cover room and board, prosecutors said.
Initially, the victim was able to take care of himself, but required more caretaking as time went on, prosecutors said.
The issue came to a head over a withdrawal of $9,000 from his checking account, prosecutors said.
They said about $102,000 was stolen from the victim. He had $200,000 in retirement savings when he moved in, but had $75,000 left when he was placed in hospice in Oxnard, where he died in December 2021, prosecutors said.
