A Menlo Park man was sentenced to more than nine years in prison Friday for forging the name of a woman he was living with on loan applications and denying her necessary medication, San Mateo County prosecutors said.
Darryl Phillips, 52, was living with a 66-year-old woman suffering from dementia, severe diabetes and high blood pressure in August 2012 when the woman's daughters called police and said they were concerned Phillips wasn't giving her medication, prosecutors said.
Police and adult protective service workers went to the home but Phillips refused to let them in and said he had her power of attorney.
Officers returned the next day with paramedics and found the woman suffering severe cognitive impairment, life-threatening blood sugar levels and high blood pressure, according to the district attorney's office.
She was hospitalized and survived but a police investigation showed that Phillips had not purchased insulin for her for months, prosecutors said.
The investigation also showed that he had forged her signature to take out loans of $57,000 and $30,000.
Phillips was charged with felony elder abuse, preparation of false evidence and misdemeanor obstruction of a police officer. A jury convicted him in May on all charges, prosecutors said.
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He had three prior felony convictions in 1984 and was eligible for a sentence of 25 years to life under California's Three Strikes sentencing guidelines.
But San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Mark Forcum did not consider two of the prior convictions in his sentencing because of their age and the non-violent nature of his most recent crime, prosecutors said.
Forcum sentenced Phillips to nine years and four months in prison and ordered him to pay restitution to the victim.
