Sobbing woman gets four years in elder abuse

STOCKTON - She wept before the judge even entered the courtroom. And she wept nearly two hours later as bailiffs escorted her away in shackles. "I've been a good person all my life," Marietta Dabanian told the court Friday in a rambling plea for leniency. "Why would I suddenly want to steal from the one person who truly loved me and cared for me?" Despite her tears, the caregiver was sentenced to four years in state prison for fleecing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a 92-year-old woman now suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Although Dabanian, 42, has no prior criminal record and denied intentionally stealing, the case involved "a significant amount of money, more than $100,000," San Joaquin Superior Court Judge Bernard Garber said before pronouncing sentence. "This was not something that occurred by happenstance," said Garber, who ordered Dabanian to pay $187,000 in restitution.

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