HUDSONVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) — The estate sale manager accused of ripping off a couple from Ottawa County is avoiding jail time, but has been order to pay them back.
Selina Hernandez pleaded no contest to larceny by conversion. She was sentenced to two years of probation in May.
During a restitution hearing on Friday, a judge order Hernandez to repay the Jension couple $5,896.
Prosecutors say Hernandez never turned over the $4,000 she made selling the Bob and Dolly Jewell’s stuff at an estate sale when they downsized from their longtime Jenison home earlier this year. The Jewells didn’t think they needed to check the 43-year-old Grand Rapids woman out because she had come recommended by their realtor.
“Our 63 years of treasures, gone without compensation. She took advantage of our age, and our trust in others is now shattered,” Dolly Jewell said during the May sentencing hearing.
But Target 8 found that Hernandez has a troubled past. When you search her name online, you learn that she was a key witness in drug-related murder in 2010. She had set up a drug deal at her house and a man ended up shot to death. Hernandez was not charged in the case. And at the 61st District Court website, you can find nearly a dozen court cases against her, many of them for failure to pay rent.
“The young lady seems to have trouble telling the truth and keeping her hands off other people’s property,” Bob Jewell said in May.
