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Name: People v. Schoenbachler
Case #: H035242
Opinion Date: 02/29/2012
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 6 DCA
Citation: 203 Cal.App.4th 1382
Summary

Felony financial abuse of an elder by embezzling funds from an annuity had a separate intent and objective from a grand theft involving the sale of jewelry and separate convictions were supported. The Bailey doctrine (People v. Bailey (1961) 55 Cal.2d 514) prevents a defendant from being convicted of more than one theft when the takings were from a single victim with one intention. It did not compel limiting the conviction to a single count in this case. Defendant was given fiduciary control of her grandmother’s finances. When the grandmother returned from a two-month stay at a treatment facility, she found that defendant had sold her jewelry and furniture worth $200,000 to $250,000 without any authorization. Defendant later placed her grandmother in a filthy, mice-ridden home with residents suffering Alzheimer’s disease. She told her grandmother that the only way to finance different housing would be for her to authorize the liquidation of an annuity. However, the funds from the annuity were spent for other purposes without the grandmother’s authorization. The separate convictions were sustained.