Ebony C. Jones, s/k/a Ebony Charisse Jones v. Commonwealth of Virginia

CourtCourt of Appeals of Virginia
DecidedJuly 7, 2026
Docket1893242
StatusPublished

This text of Ebony C. Jones, s/k/a Ebony Charisse Jones v. Commonwealth of Virginia (Ebony C. Jones, s/k/a Ebony Charisse Jones v. Commonwealth of Virginia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ebony C. Jones, s/k/a Ebony Charisse Jones v. Commonwealth of Virginia, (Va. Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA

Record No. 1893-24-2

EBONY C. JONES, S/K/A EBONY CHARISSE JONES v. COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

Present: Judges Beales, O’Brien and Ortiz Argued at Richmond, Virginia Opinion Issued July 7, 2026

FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF CHESTERFIELD COUNTY David E. Johnson, Judge

Monica Tuck, Assistant Public Defender (Virginia Indigent Defense Commission, on briefs), for appellant.

Shelly R. James, Senior Assistant Attorney General (Jason S. Miyares,1 Attorney General, on brief), for appellee.

PUBLISHED OPINION BY JUDGE DANIEL E. ORTIZ

It is a criminal offense in this Commonwealth for any person, including an employed

caregiver, to engage in financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult in order to steal their money from

them under Code § 18.2-178.1. The 2022 amendments to the statute bolster the protections

extended to “vulnerable adults,” as defined under Code § 18.2-369(C). Ebony C. Jones appeals her

conviction for financial exploitation of her client, M.S.,2 under Code § 18.2-178.1(B) on grounds of

legal and factual insufficiency. She argues that the statute’s “use” requirement requires proof of the

1 Jay C. Jones succeeded Jason S. Miyares as Attorney General on January 17, 2026. 2 Due to the nature of the case, M.S. is not identified by name. specific method of taking to support conviction. Rejecting Jones’s arguments on appeal, we affirm

her conviction.

BACKGROUND3

M.S. was paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident in 2007. M.S. sustained no

brain damage from the accident, but her paralysis left her bedbound and frequently heavily

medicated. As a result, she required around-the-clock care and assistance with her daily

activities such as bathing, getting dressed, and eating. After the accident, her adult son, Brian S.,

became M.S.’s medical and financial power of attorney, and he established an LLC to hire

caregivers for his mother. Although Brian and her caregivers arranged outings for M.S., she was

sometimes sad and often expressed feeling that “she didn’t have control over her own life

anymore.”

Although Brian held financial power of attorney, it was important to M.S. that she remain

involved in her finances. Brian and his daughter handled most of M.S.’s money matters, keeping

track of both M.S.’s personal bank account and the separate payroll account he established to pay

caregivers through the LLC. M.S. was “pretty good” about reading and comprehending her

financial documents but did not have complete confidence in her decision-making. M.S. had

access to checks, a debit card, and a credit card which she could use without Brian’s

authorization. She was able to shop for herself, although she rarely did so. Her main

expenditures were for medical supplies and equipment, a constant necessity. Brian set up an

iPad at M.S.’s house for medical supply orders. He linked the iPad to an Amazon account and

3 “We recite the facts in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, the prevailing party below.” Sadler v. Commonwealth, 276 Va. 762, 764 (2008). In doing so, we are required to “discard the evidence of the accused in conflict with that of the Commonwealth, and regard as true all . . . credible evidence favorable to the Commonwealth and all fair inferences to be drawn therefrom.” Cooper v. Commonwealth, 54 Va. App. 558, 562 (2009) (quoting Parks v. Commonwealth, 221 Va. 492, 498 (1980)). -2- several online food delivery platforms, all of which were connected to M.S.’s personal bank

account for payment. Jones and other caregivers had access to the iPad and regularly used it to

place orders.

Brian S. hired Ebony Jones as a caregiver for M.S. in the first few years after M.S.’s

accident. She became extremely close to the family over time, even once accompanying M.S. on

a family vacation. While Jones worked elsewhere for a few years, Brian happily rehired Jones in

2017 because she “did a wonderful job” of providing caregiving services and he considered her

“an asset” as an employee.

As she aged, M.S. began to experience memory issues, which became most notable at the

end of 2022. Although M.S. never received a formal diagnosis, her symptoms reminded Brian of

other family members who had suffered from dementia. These symptoms were not constant:

M.S. would be fine for “a week or two . . . and then [there would be] three or four days where

she would not be with it at all.” On bad days, M.S. would have trouble with names and faces.

She began to mistake Brian for his deceased father and would sometimes become confused about

who her caregivers or grandchildren were, or why they were in her house. Brian found those

periods difficult, because he could see that M.S. “would know something wasn’t right but she

couldn’t put together what it was.” She became less active and slept for much of the time during

those periods.

But even on good days, M.S. would frequently ask Brian for a second opinion before

making financial decisions. Jones once asked M.S. to lend her money for a water heater repair,

and M.S. consulted Brian before deciding whether to do so. M.S. did loan Jones the money, but

no repayments were ever made despite Jones’s agreement to start repayment in early 2023. Even

as M.S.’s memory issues worsened, she and Brian continued making her financial decisions

“together.”

-3- In December 2022, Jeffrey Bracewell, M.S.’s bank representative, contacted Brian after

he noticed an unusually low balance in M.S.’s personal bank account. While reviewing the

account’s statements, Bracewell had noticed a series of transactions transferring M.S.’s money to

an American Express account throughout the latter half of 2022. After Brian confirmed that

M.S. did not have an account with AmEx, Bracewell contacted the bank’s fraud department.

This investigation, and a subsequent forensic audit by Detective Michael Rogers of the

Chesterfield County Police, matched the suspicious transactions to the AmEx account, and

identified other institutions that received suspicious transfers from M.S.’s account. Jones was

the account holder on the AmEx account, and all of the other suspicious transactions also

matched accounts held by either Jones or her husband. The payments made to these accounts

were as follows:

in the month of July 2022, there were 26 payments totaling $7,255.99; in the month of August 2022, there were 44 payments totaling $16,649.50; in the month of September 2022, there were 20 payments totaling $10,584.99; in the month of October 2022, there were 17 payments totaling $11,970.13; in the month of November 2022, there were 20 payments totaling $10,889.00. In sum, there were 127 unauthorized payments totaling $57,348.61 to accounts controlled by the defendant.

When Brian shared the results of the investigation with M.S., she was “in total

shock[ and] disbelief” that Jones had taken the money. “She was just devastated that somebody

she trusted so much could do something like this . . . . She was heartbroken, just deeply

heartbroken.” The next time Jones came to work, Brian asked her about the suspicious transfers,

but she claimed to know nothing about them. At that point, Brian suspended Jones’s

employment.

Detective Rogers testified that he interviewed Jones in March 2023 about the suspicious

transactions. Jones admitted that she had paid some of her personal bills using M.S.’s checking

account. Jones explained that M.S.

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