With angry, ripped-off elderly people behind him in court, funeral home owner Paul Stella could barely turn around.
“I?m too ashamed and embarrassed to look back there,” said Stella, 43, who was sentenced Thursday to four and a half years for stealing more than $900,000 in prepaid funeral expenses from 191 customers. “I took people?s money mostly to cover gambling debts.”
The shame wasn?t enough to make victim Helena Dauses feel better about the way Stella handled her husband?s funeral.
“Paul Stella stole our money,” she told Chief U.S. District Judge Benson Legg in Baltimore. “My husband?s ashes are placed in a cheap black box.”
Prosecutor Harry Gruber said Stella preyed on the weakest in society ? those distracted by cancer and other life-threatening illnesses ? in order to continue his fraud scheme undetected for more than three years.
“He spent money from the accounts for whatever he pleased,” Gruber said, then gestured to the victims sitting behind him. “It is amazing how wasteful Mr. Stella was with these people?s money.”
Stella owned and operated Paul Stella Funeral Home, at 7527 Harford Road and allowed customers ? many of them senior citizens ? to pay funeral costs in advance, according to an indictment.
Each of these prepaid accounts garnered Stella from $500 to $7,500, and he agreed to deposit the prepaid funeral expenses in bank accounts and act as a trustee to preserve the money for the funerals, court records show.
But between June 2004 and December 2006, Stella forged documents and took money from these accounts to use for personal expenses such as gambling, prosecutors said.
Among those rippedoff was Dolly Baliko, 70, of Aberdeen, who gave $6,000 in funeral funds to Stella ? only to watch the money vanish.
“He shouldn?t be able to get away with this,” said Baliko?s daughter, Kathy Nance. “He has hurt too many people and too many families.”
Gruber said the victims were not wealthy people.
“It was a huge financial hit for them,” he said, adding that Stella spent their money on casinos, pain-killing drugs and fancy cars. “He was a big-time gambler and he was enjoying himself. A Jaguar S vehicle is not needed for moving flowers.”
Stella?s oldest brother, Robert, said the scheme was completely out of character for his sibling.
“This is not one of the great criminal minds of our time, trust me,” he said. “If I had the money, I?d pay everybody back. This should never have happened.”
