Daughter gambles mom’s savings away

Daughter gambles mom’s savings away
David Goodwin

As Debra Davis’ mother lay near death in a Birmingham hospital bed two years ago, her daughter gambled away her life savings.

Davis had a limited power of attorney for her mother Doris Anderson, trusted the mortgage and other bills paid while Anderson was hospitalized for almost four months in 2009.

According to the guilty plea Davis entered in Elmore County Circuit Court last October, Davis used that power to clean out her mother’s retirement account, blowing the $130,000 nest egg in area casinos.

“She took my whole life savings, everything that I had,” Anderson said Tuesday at the Elmore County Judicial Complex. “It’s broken my heart. I loved her so much and I trusted her.”

Davis skipped a hearing Tuesday where Circuit Judge Sibley Reynolds was to sentence her on first-degree theft of property. But her mother was there, sitting in a wheelchair, with oxygen tubes running to her face.

State Assistant Attorney General Noel Barnes said a warrant has been issued for Davis’ arrest, and an investigator is working to track her down.

“This is an unusual theft case, a daughter stealing $130,000 from her mother and squandering it on gambling,” Barnes said Thursday. “Doris was on her deathbed when this money was taken and gambled away.”

The Wetumpka Police Department handled the initial investigation, but the prosecution was taken over by the attorney general’s office as an “elder abuse” case.

Davis cashed out her mother’s retirement savings, Barnes said, using them to feed a gambling addiction at casinos in Wetumpka, Montgomery and Shorter.

“Debra has a gambling problem, plain and simple,” Barnes said.

Anderson gave her victim’s impact statement Tuesday, telling Reynolds that two titanium braces and 12 screws had been surgically implanted in her back. She also contracted a drug-resistant staph infection during treatment and “they nearly lost me a few times,” Anderson told the judge.

“We wanted her statement on the record (Tuesday), because we don’t know if she’ll make it back to the courthouse,” Barnes said.

Not only did Davis blow her mother’s life savings, but by making two withdrawls from her investment account -- one for $99,000 and another for $31,000 -- she left Anderson with a hefty tax bill to pay. A settlement with the IRS has her paying $150 per month just to keep up.

Because Davis has a prior conviction, Barnes said, she’ll face a sentence of 10 years to life for the Class A felony.

Her deal with the AG’s office called for a 10-year sentence, but her failure to appear in court Tuesday may increase her time behind bars.

The restitution payments to which Davis agreed won’t amount to much. Even at $100 per month over the 10-year sentence, it wouldn’t add up to even 10 percent of what she stole, Barnes said.

“Jail time, in my opinion, is the only way justice is served,” he said.