A West Virginia man was sentenced to 12 years in prison Monday for scamming a 92-year-old woman, who suffers from dementia, out of $11,600 over 15 days in November 2012.
A jury found Darrell Lang, 43, of Martinsburg, guilty of 16 counts in May. The charges ranged from operating a theft scheme to exploiting a vulnerable adult.
The scheme began when Lang randomly showed up to the woman’s home in Silver Spring on Nov. 15, 2012 accompanied by a group of unidentified individuals who pressured the woman into paying for roof repairs, according to court documents.
That first day the woman wrote him a check for $1,800. Over the next two weeks, Lang continued to show up, despite the woman telling him she felt the work didn’t need to be done. Over that time, the woman wrote Lang five more checks ranging from $1,500 to 2,500.
On Dec. 3, the woman’s daughter-in-law noticed the elderly woman’s bank account was nearly empty and discovered that no work had been done on the roof. She called police, who later arrested Lang.
John McCarthy, the state’s attorney for Montgomery County, hailed Lang’s lengthy sentence, in a statement.
“Twelve years behind bars will give Mr. Lang a long time to think about the harm he caused this 92-year-old victim,” McCarthy said. “And hopefully this will serve notice to other thieves who might scam our senior citizens—they will be caught, they will be arrested, prosecuted and do time for their crime.”
