Published: October 09, 2009 10:16 am      

Niece found innocent of exploiting uncle

A Vaiden woman was found not guilty of two counts of exploitation of a vulnerable adult Wednesday, Sept. 30.

Kathy McCorkle was charged in February and was accused of making purchases on three occasions at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Kosciusko with her uncle’s checks without permission and without providing any of the purchased goods to the victim, who suffered from dementia, in December 2007. The purchases totaled $656.

McCorkle, who took the stand in her defense, said she and her uncle Jerry, went to the Veterans Hospital in Jackson to see about her uncle.

He had been in the hospital to be mentally evaluated.

She said he asked to be released into their care and they took him back to his home in Choctaw County.

When they arrived at home, McCorkle said he was upset that his guns were missing and the home was in disarray.

He told McCorkle that he couldn’t believe his wife would leave him.

McCorkle testified she and Jerry took him to the bank where he closed his joint account with his wife and then opened another with her as a co-signer.

Later, her uncle sold a tractor and gave her the money to do with as she pleased. She closed the banking account they had together and opened another one.

McCorkle said she bought various things with the money – Christmas gifts, groceries, and her uncle’s leftover expenses at his Choctaw County home since he had moved in with her.

She also paid a divorce attorney fees when he sought to divorce his wife.

Both, McCorkle and attorney J. Lane Greenlee said he was competent and lucid.

He knew the date and time, McCorkle said.

In mid-December 2007, McCorkle said he became very agitated when he saw what he thought was his wife and another man.

The Med-Stat ambulance service was called so he could be treated. Dementia was listed as one of his ailments.

His wife, Norma, testified that there were no problems in the marriage of over 20 years.

She said he had been changing over the years and that he would follow her around like a puppy. She added that he would not eat or sleep.

Norma said he was taken to VA Hospital in Jackson for a mental evaluation.

While he was in the hospital, Norma said some of his family members including McCorkle banged on the door of her home and began hollering.

Norma said she was afraid for her and her two grown children that she cares for in the home.

It was after that incident, she and her children moved near her sister in Winston County.

Next money was missing from their joint account and she was later served divorce papers.

Norma said she doesn’t believe he was lucid enough to sign divorce papers.

McCorkle’s uncle now resides in the Kosciusko Veterans Home and Norma has power of attorney over her husband.

Norma said there are times when he is lucid but it usually doesn’t last very long.

The jury was made up of two white men, two white women, seven black women and two black men, one of which was an alternate.