PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A serial thief who yanked the wedding and engagement rings off a 92-year-old widow’s finger in Portland and pawned them for $100 will spend six months in jail - less than either the prosecution or her lawyer asked for.
A judge said the lighter sentence, and three years of probation, could give that 48-year-old Theresa Reba Mozell White an incentive to turn things around, The Oregonian (https://bit.ly/1yWd4Lv) reported.
She’ll know that she’ll face up to six years in prison if she is caught stealing again or fails to attend drug treatment, said Judge Henry Kantor.
“There’s really nothing slowing her down,” he told the lawyers Thursday at sentencing. “She does what she feels like.”
White has a 20-year criminal history that includes 25 misdemeanor convictions.
Prosecutor Rebecca Freeman said White walked into the dining room at a Portland assisted living center in July 2013 and tried to get a ruby ring off the woman’s hand, but it wouldn’t slide over her knuckle. Then she managed to get the wedding and engagement rings from the woman’s other hand and fled.
“Her husband is no longer alive,” Freeman said. “This wedding set, she’d only removed one time prior to this, in 1940.”
Police found the rings at the pawn shop, and the woman got them back.
In April 2014, White pleaded no contest to robbery and theft. She was scheduled to be sentenced in June but failed to appear. She said that was because she’d entered treatment the day before.
After White’s arrest for swiping the rings, she failed treatment twice and was caught stealing three times, Freeman said.
Freeman recommended a term of nearly four years.
On Thursday, White’s lawyer, Thomas Hanrahan, recommended one year and said White needs to be in treatment as soon as possible.
“She’s almost always intoxicated when she commits her crimes, or trying to get money to buy drugs and alcohol,” he said.
White pleaded with the judge to avoid sending her to prison. “All I think about is treatment,” White said. And she thanked him after sentencing.
“Good luck to you,” he responded.
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Information from: The Oregonian, https://www.oregonlive.com
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