Montgomery, AL – Attorney General Steve Marshall has announced the conviction and sentencing of Gina Cook Gilbert, a 63-year-old woman from Gadsden, Etowah County, for Financial Exploitation of an Elderly Person in the First Degree. Gilbert pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of Financial Exploitation in the First Degree, a Class B felony, for exploiting her elderly mother while acting as her conservator.
“Elderly citizens deserve to be protected and taken care of when they are unable to care for themselves without worrying that their caregiver is exploiting them,” stated Attorney General Steve Marshall. “Unfortunately, this can even happen when the caregiver is a family member. We cannot allow those who take advantage of the elderly to go unpunished, and I will continue to fight to make sure we hold those accountable who have accepted the responsibility to care for another person.”
The case revealed that Gilbert was appointed conservator over her mother’s financial account, Patricia Jerome, in October 2014. However, less than four years later, it was discovered that Gilbert had misused her mother’s financial resources for personal expenses, breaching her fiduciary duties. During subsequent legal proceedings, Gilbert admitted to being unable to account for over $2.5 million of her mother’s financial resources. Despite repaying the stolen funds during the civil case, Patricia Jerome passed away before seeing her daughter held accountable for the exploitation.
Following her guilty plea to the Class B felony charge, Gilbert was sentenced to five years in the Alabama Department of Corrections, with an additional two years of probation.
Attorney General Steve Marshall commended the successful prosecution carried out by his Criminal Trials Division, specifically acknowledging Deputy Attorney General John Kachelman, as well as the Attorney General’s Investigations Division for their efforts in ensuring justice was served in this case.
