Defendant changes plea at last second in elder abuse case
BY JASON KOTOWSKI Californian staff writer jkotowski@bakersfield.com
An elder abuse suspect facing five years in prison surprised everyone -- including his attorney -- when he withdrew his no contest plea just before sentencing Thursday morning.
Joseph McCoy's decision left the prosecutor, defense attorneys and judge scrambling to find an open date for another hearing in a case they expected over by 9 a.m. It also leaves Darlene Green, McCoy's co-defendant and mother, in the lurch.
Green likely would have been released Thursday following sentencing, but the plea deal offered by prosecutor Michelle Domino was made on the condition that both defendants pleaded no contest to causing harm to an elderly person.
The charge stems from allowing Margaret Gray, the 90-year-old bedridden victim, to lie for weeks in her own urine and excrement. Gray, who was McCoy's grandmother and Green's mother, died at a health care center a few months after the abuse was discovered.
Green's attorney, John Tello, asked if his client could be released on her own recognizance since she would have been freed anyway if McCoy hadn't changed his mind. Kern County Superior Court Judge Michael Lewis denied the request because Green now faces far more time in custody absent the plea deal.
Thursday's hearing proceeded as expected until just after Lewis asked if there was any legal reason sentencing could not proceed.
Deputy Public Defender Janice Kim said "No," while McCoy simultaneously and loudly said "Yes." Kim turned and looked at McCoy, then asked for a moment to speak with her client.
After discussion. Kim told Lewis that McCoy wished to withdraw his plea.
The attorneys and Lewis spent the next few minutes deciding when they'd meet again. The earliest date they could agree to was March 2.
Kim said afterward she didn't know why McCoy changed his plea. Tello and Domino could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
The case against McCoy and Green began Feb. 11 of last year when deputies were called to Gray's Lake Isabella home.
Gray was dehydrated, there was minimal muscle tissue on her body and her heart was racing at 180 to 200 beats per minute, the reports say. She had numerous bedsores, including a large ulcer on her back so severe that her tailbone was exposed.
McCoy was Gray's primary caregiver, according to the court reports. He was already in custody on domestic violence charges when the elder abuse was reported. He's since pleaded no contest to felony spousal abuse in that case.
McCoy said he had left a message for Green to take care of Gray after he was arrested, the reports say. Green was arrested May 13 and faced a year in custody under the plea deal, which would have given her credit for time served and in all likelihood have resulted in her immediate release upon sentencing.
Her son's change of mind will now have her spending at least the next month, and possibly more, behind bars.
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