Victim gave $130,000 that he believed would assist four children
Crystal Wells
Crystal Wells
Amber WoodyAdvertisement
Posted: Thursday, April 10, 2014 10:30 pm | Updated: 7:45 pm, Sat Apr 12, 2014.
Two Henrico County women have been convicted of defrauding a well-meaning, elderly neighbor who feared one of the women was losing custody of her four children and who believed the other was a drug counselor. Henrico Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael S. Huberman said the 84-year-old target lost in excess of $130,000 over several months to the women who befriended him in the West End Manor neighborhood and pleaded for money.
Richmond resident Crystal Marie Wells, 33, who played a minor role in the case posing as a drug counselor, was sentenced to serve eight months in jail Thursday. Her co-defendant, Amber Woody, 30, who lived across the street from the victim, was sentenced to seven years in prison last month, more than double the high end of sentencing guidelines.
The victim, who is not identified at his family’s request, had lived alone in the home where he’d lived for decades and raised a family.
Woody’s four children are now in foster care, Huberman said, an ironic twist to what Woody had claimed she needed money to avoid.
And while pleas were made for money for parenting classes, drug rehabilitation, DMV fees, court costs and other items, the funds mostly were used to purchase heroin, a Lexus and food.
“How did you meet?” a detective asked Woody, according to a transcript that is part of court records.
“I went over there and asked if I could cut his grass,” Woody said. “I asked, ‘If I cut your grass can you loan me $20?’ I think that was last September.”
When the victim gave Woody a credit card urging her to buy diapers for her children, Woody said, “I just paid the cellphone bill.”
“Once he started giving me more (money) I knew that I could get more so I started asking for more,” Woody told the detective.
How much heroin are you using a day?” the detective asked Woody. “About $300,” she answered.
Many of the disbursements were recorded in a book and Woody said that Wells represented herself as Woody’s drug counselor in order to elicit sympathy.
The scam was detected by family members, who went to police.
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