People v. Elsmore CA4/2

California Court of Appeal·Decided September 14, 2022·No. E075090·Unpublished

Opinion

Filed 9/14/22 P. v. Elsmore CA4/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION TWO

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, E075090 v. (Super. Ct. No. RIF1703953) RICHARD SCOTT ELSMORE, OPINION Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. Samuel Diaz, Jr. Judge.

Affirmed with directions.

Jeanine G. Strong, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Matthew Rodriguez, Acting Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Amanda Lloyd and Steve Oetting, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Defendant and appellant Richard Scott Elsmore was sentenced to three years in prison after a jury convicted him of various offenses related to his financial abuse of Tina L., an adult with significant cognitive impairment and mental health issues. He argues

his convictions must be reversed because there was insufficient evidence that Tina was a

1

“dependent adult” under Penal Code section 368 and the trial court improperly instructed

the jury with CALJIC No. 1.23. He also contends the abstract of judgment must be amended to correct clerical errors. We direct the trial court to amend the abstract of judgment but otherwise affirm the judgment.

II.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Tina was born in 1989. She suffers from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression.

In 2013, when Tina was 22 years old, her parents died. They bequeathed Tina their paid-off house in San Jacinto, an annuity of $100,000, and a car.

After her parents’ death, Tina asked someone to move in with her to help with her everyday needs. That person contacted Tina’s estranged sister, who instead had Tina admitted to a psychiatric hospital twice in 2013.

1 Unless otherwise indicated, all further statutory references are to the Penal Code.

Tina’s ability to take care of herself continued to deteriorate after her hospitalizations. The person Tina invited to live with her invited squatters into the house, who stole about $40,000 from her.

In April 2013, a Sheriff’s deputy responded to Tina’s house in response to a neighbor’s 911 call. Tina’s mood quickly changed from crying to screaming to laughing. The deputy found Tina’s living conditions to be “completely unfit.” Her house was filthy, there were rotten piles of food around the house, and all of the food in her freezer was thawed or melted because the freezer door was left open.

Tina told the deputy that she wanted to kill unidentified people who had made her life difficult. She said she was upset that the government would not listen to her because she knew where Osama Bin Laden was hiding (even though he had been killed two years prior). The deputy placed Tina on an involuntary hold under Welfare and Institutions Code section 5150, during which she suffered from psychosis, mood swings, disorganized thought, and suicidal ideation.

Tina was released on May 1, 2013, but she was involuntarily hospitalized about a month later when she was found walking around her neighborhood naked and eating dirt. The hospital recommended that Tina be placed in an assisted living facility because she could not take care of herself. She needed help with everyday things, including, cooking, dressing, grooming, and managing her finances.

At some time in the spring of 2013, Tina met defendant when he was working on a house near hers. At Tina’s request, defendant helped her jump-start her car. Defendant noticed that Tina’s yard needed work, so he gave her his card and told her to call him if she needed help with anything.

Tina later called defendant when she needed a ride because her car was being impounded and she was driving on a suspended license. Defendant picked her up and drove her home. While on the way, Tina told defendant that she suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Tina began asking defendant for rides when he was working on nearby houses.

Tina became a “big project” for defendant. She needed help collecting rent from a tenant in her house and told defendant that she thought squatters had stolen $40,000 from her mother’s life insurance.

Defendant learned that Tina had an annuity and offered to help her manage her finances. He told Tina that he could double or triple her money. Tina trusted defendant, so she accepted his offer.

On May 8, 2013, shortly after being released from the hospital, Tina signed a contract that defendant drafted. Its stated purpose was to provide Tina a “stable and beneficial foundation to deal with and address her personal, spiritual, financial, mental, and all other temporal needs.” Tina understood the contract as providing that defendant would manage her finances for her benefit and that she would receive all of the money he made.

The agreement stated, among other things, that Tina had been “‘5150’[d]’” from her home on a “number of occasions” and that she could not maintain her house “due to challenges arising from mental illness, stress, neighbors stealing from her, and her feelings over her parents passing.” The agreement provided that defendant would assume the responsibility of ensuring that “Tina is taken care of, that she has a place to live, has food to eat, has clothing, entertainment and other activities that support a meaningful existence.” Under the agreement, defendant was authorized to draw upon any of Tina’s financial resources so as to “support all the needs of Tina.” The agreement thus provided that defendant “shall handle any and all of [Tina’s] finances” and that she gave defendant “full discretion and full faith to handle her expenses and finances” and allowed him “to go forward and manage her finances in a manner that he sees fit.”

Another portion of the agreement dealt with Tina’s mental health needs. It stated:

“Since Tina has been dealing with mental illness for most of her life, there may arise the need to be medicated, seek mental health needs, provide medications, provide help and promote the overall needs of having stability in her life. [Defendant] agrees to assist Tina in seeking such things. If the needs arise, [defendant] will provide whatever Tina needs to remedy her mental health situation. This includes, but is not limited to: visits to the mental health clinis [sic], visits to counseling, support, medications, and providing for the general welfare of Tina.”

About six months later, Tina and defendant executed an addendum to the agreement, which provided that defendant would be “the sole person” responsible for

Tina’s house. The addendum also provided that defendant had “sole discretion” to decide how to use money generated by the property, and that he would receive reimbursement for “managerial costs” and “whatever expenses he sees fit.”

Tina trusted defendant with her finances, but he never explained to her how much he or she would get from any profits. Tina was afraid to ask because she did not want to get into an argument with defendant. Defendant would become angry and defensive when she asked him about her finances.

Tina never received any money that defendant promised. At some point after they executed the agreement, defendant took control of Tina’s debit card and told her that she was not allowed to make any purchases without his permission.

Between her hospitalizations in 2013, Tina moved into defendant’s house where he and his wife, Merrily, took care of her full time. While living with defendant, Tina was not allowed to cook because she had almost set her house on fire while cooking.

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