GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — When Bob and Dolly Jewell hired Selina Hernandez to manage their estate sale, they had no idea the 43-year-old Grand Rapids woman had once managed a drug deal that turned deadly.
"We were upset with ourselves that we didn’t check her out on our own," Bob Jewell told Target 8.
But it never occurred to them to do so because their realtor gave them Hernandez’s name. Besides, Bob and Dolly Jewell, who are 90 and 85 respectively, told Target 8 they wouldn’t know how to "background" someone anyway.
"We’re dinosaurs," Bob Jewell said. "We don’t have a computer."
Last winter, Jewells decided it was time to downsize from the home in Jenison where they had raised their three kids. They had lived in the five-bedroom house on Cottonwood Drive for 50 years.
"Every room was full," Dolly Jewell said. "In fact, the realtor said I was a collector."
REALTOR RECOMMENDED ESTATE SALE MANAGER
The Jewells were grateful when their realtor, Dwight Berens of Remax, suggested they have an estate sale and even recommended a woman named Selina Hernandez to manage the event. Hernandez, who’s 43 and lives on Grand Rapids' West Side, advertises that she runs a business liquidating estates.
"(Hernandez) suggested that we don’t show up because there’s a lot of emotional conflict when things are departed from the house," Bob Jewell recalled. "You might decide don’t want to sell."
When the three-day sale was over, the Jewells say, Hernandez contacted their daughter.
"She called our daughter and told her she had $4,000 plus and she was going to put it in the bank and have a cashier’s check in the mail for us," Bob Jewell said.
But the cashier's check never came.
"So we made an appointment, said we’ll meet her at Starbucks in Meijer and she never showed," Bob Jewell said. "So we were a little suspicious then."
The Jewells ultimately contacted police and filed a small claims suit against Hernandez.
HERNANDEZ WITNESSED DRUG-RELATED HOMICIDE
The Jewells also learned that Hernandez had a history that might have made them think twice about hiring her.
A quick online search shows she was a prime witness in an August 2010 drug-related killing in Grand Rapids. Two men were ultimately sentenced to prison on second-degree murder charges for the shooting death of 43-year-old Bradley Memberto.
Hernandez wasn't charged in connection to the homicide, but Kent County prosecutors say she helped set up the marijuana deal, which took place at her home on Garfield Avenue NW. That's also where Memberto was shot and killed.
REALTOR 'HAD NO IDEA'
"I had no idea," said Dwight Berens, the Remax realtor who recommended Hernandez to the Jewells.
Berens told Target 8 that another client of his had used Hernandez for an estate sale and gave her a great review.
"Obviously, I’m very sad about it," he said when asked how he felt about having connected the Jewells to Hernandez. "The Jewells are really the last people who should have been ripped off like that."
Berens initially had trouble believing Hernandez was scamming the couple.
"I thought, this can’t be," he recalled. "I’m a pretty good judge of character, and this gal is not a criminal.
"But the more we got into it, the more I was wrong and they were right," he continued. "They were in the process of being ripped off for all of the proceeds of the sale of their personal property in their house."
HERNANDEZ DENIES SHE STOLE FROM JEWELLS
Hernandez, however, disputed the Jewell’s claims in a series of emails with Target 8 investigator Susan Samples.
"The Jewells didn’t have big ticket items, Susan," wrote Hernandez. "It was more like a garage sale than an estate sale."
In a text message to the Jewells' daughter, Hernandez claimed the sale made a total of $4,260. But she told Target 8 that she owes the Jewells $750 after taking out her costs and cut of the profit. The Jewells had paid Hernandez $450 upfront and agreed that she would get 10 percent of the profits.
"The remaining different is $750," Hernandez wrote. "But I was left with no forwarding address or current phone number (to send the money)."
Hernandez said she still has the "daily log and credit card receipts" from the sale, but she did not provide them to Target 8.
"I’m so pissed I didn’t take a video of the leftover stuff," she wrote. "You would see nothing of high value."
Hernandez said she went above and beyond to make sure the Jewells' home was cleared out prior to their closing date.
"They knew I busted my ass, and all I got was 'why didn’t everything sell?'" she wrote. "I didn’t take from this family. If I was evil I would’ve kept the only two items that had any value being that antique cast iron ashtray and vintage glasses that I returned to them."
DETECTIVES DON'T BUY HERNANDEZ'S STORY
The Ottawa County prosecutor authorized a felony warrant for Hernandez on Oct. 13 n connection with the estate sale theft.
A sheriff’s deputy told a judge that Hernandez admitted to detectives that she owed the Jewells money and said she would make arrangements to pay them.
"At this time, there has been no attempt made to pay them," reported Deputy Eric Smith.
"The victims did provide an extensive list with approximately $12,000 worth of property that they had never received payment for," Smith told a judge when he obtained the warrant.
Smith also testified that Hernandez initially told the Jewells she had sold $4,260 worth of their property.
Hernandez is facing a charge of larceny by conversion involving between $1,000 and $20,000. The charge carries a potential penalty of up to five years in prison and/or $10,000.
HOW TO CHECK SOMEONE OUT BEFORE HIRING
Hernandez has a fairly clean criminal record, though the Michigan State Police database does show a traffic offense and a 1999 arrest for drug possession.
If you want to run someone’s name through the Internet Criminal History Access Tool (ICHAT), you’ll need their date of birth. If you’re thinking about hiring someone, the person shouldn’t mind sharing their birthdate. If they do, that’s probably a red flag.
Michigan State Police charge $10 for each criminal history check, even if there’s no record found.
While Selina Hernandez’s ICHAT check would not have revealed much, Target 8’s other go-to background check tool revealed more. You can search Grand Rapids District Court case for free online at the 61st District Court website.
When Target 8 searched for Selina Hernandez, we found 11 lawsuits against her, three of which involved disputes with landlords. That suggests a pattern of money troubles, which might not bode well if you're hiring someone to manage a sale at your home.
In one eviction case, the court file contained a letter the landlord had sent Hernandez.
"It has been over two months now that we have been hearing about 'how' things are 'going to be corrected,'" the landlord wrote. "But we continue to hear excuses every week."
Here are two other court sites Target 8 often uses when researching people:
AccessKent, which allows you to search cases filed in Kent County Circuit Court and other records.
Public Access to Court Electronic Records, which allows you to search federal court documents.