WASHINGTON, D.C. (WRIC) – The former owner of a Maryland care home has now been found guilty of stealing over $3,000 from an elderly woman in her care.
According to her guilty plea, Latonja Dashawn Carrera, 48, of Camp Springs, Maryland, was the owner and administrator of M&M Residential Services, Inc., a residence facility licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH).
In January 2019, she made five separate transactions in 16 days totaling to just over $3,000 from the bank accounts of a 73-year-old adult under her care. She used this money to pay for her personal utility and credit card bills.
Carrera was arrested in December 2020 and pleaded guilty in December 2022 to a felony charge of financial exploitation of a vulnerable or elderly adult. She was sentenced on Friday, May 12 to one year in prison and three years of probation.
She will also have to undergo a mental health evaluation, pay $1,565.78 in restitution to the victim and a $100 fine to the victims compensation fund and will not longer to able to be a beneficiary to anyone other than her family members.
