Beverly Ochoa, 30, of Derwood, Maryland, has been sentenced to a 12-month suspended sentence for first-degree theft in the stealing of $2,600 cash from the elderly wife of a hospice patient.
Ochoa pleaded guilty on February 28 in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to one count of first-degree theft.
As part of the sentence, Superior Court Judge Robert Salerno ordered one year of supervised probation to include 40 hours of community service and suspended three years of supervised release.
According to the government’s evidence, on the evening of October 1, MPD officers were called to the victims’ home in Southeast, where an elderly couple resided, and the husband was receiving hospice care.
The couple employed two health aide caregivers from different companies to assist with the care of the patient. One of the workers, Ochoa, was in the home with the patient when the patient’s wife came downstairs to pay the other health aide worker.
When she asked Ochoa where the other worker was, Ochoa said she had left the residence. The patient’s wife then placed the $2,600 in $100 bills inside a drawer so she could pay the other worker later and left for a medical appointment.
When the patient’s wife returned later that day, the cash was missing from the drawer. The couple’s family arrived at the home and reviewed in-home security camera footage. The video captured Ochoa retrieving something from the kitchen and placing it in her purse.
The family called law enforcement, and when officers arrived, they found $2,600 in $100 bills inside the defendant’s purse. She was arrested that day.
