Ex-con gets 10 years for defrauding ill veteran
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From Times Staff and Wire Reports
An ex-convict who befriended an ailing World War II veteran and was then named as beneficiary of his estate was sentenced to 10 years in prison for elder fraud.
The sentence resulted from a deal Joe Gonzales, 53, struck with prosecutors in February, when he pleaded no contest to eight counts of grand theft resulting from his dealings with John Whittaker of Antioch. Gonzales was accused of persuading Whittaker, who suffers from dementia, to give him $350,000 and to rewrite his will so Gonzales would inherit his estate.
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