California Court of Appeal

Defendant's conviction for committing theft from an elder and dependent adult by selling her an annuity policy which the prosecutor argued to the jury "was an unsuitable product for her age" despite its approval for sale to such a person by the California Department of Insurance is reversed, where: 1) there was no evidence that defendant appropriated the elder's funds to his own use or to the benefit of anyone other than the elder herself, nor was there evidence that defendant made any misrepresentations or used any artifice in connection with the sale; and 2) the jury was incorrectly instructed that to convict, it need find only that the purchase of the annuity deprived the elder of a major portion of the value or enjoyment of her property, eliminating the necessity of proving that defendant had any such intention.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/08/2013
• Published 10/08/2013

Judges

• POLLAK

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel