Months of horror were in store for an elderly man from Tomball, located about 35 miles from Houston, who reportedly tried to help out a vagrant and ended up her prisoner.
The victim, a disabled veteran named Roma “Joe” Whitten, told his story to KHOU.
The 79-year-old alleged that Holly Coleman, Sommer Hamptom, and Malik Maneebullah took over his home, ransacked his belongings, drained his bank account, ruined his credit, and beat him with a hard plastic rod.
It all began when Whitten tried to help one of the women by offering her a place to stay to get back on her feet.
“But you can’t help a thief and a liar,” Whitten told KHOU.
Upon returning home from a funeral in Louisiana last December, Whitten apparently found that his key wouldn’t work in the door and three new vehicles — all later discovered to have been financed in his name — stood in his driveway where his truck used to be.
The three suspects had seemingly taken over Whitten’s home and his finances.
“I wish a thousand times I never helped them, but I did,” Whitten told KHOU.
Whitten testified that he was beaten with a plastic rod anytime one of the suspects needed money.
It was the bruises they caused that led to Whitten’s liberation, he said. His friend Patti Hallas saw them when Whitten was taking one of the suspects to get an oil change at Hallas’ business.
Hallas alerted both the police and Adult Protective Services to the situation in late February. She also filed to have the three squatters removed from the house on his behalf.
While this eviction was eventually successful after an investigation by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office, the damage to Whitten’s home and finances had already been done.
“They took the TVs, they took the wall oven, they took the refrigerator, they took everything,” Hallas told KHOU.
A criminal complaint was filed on June 2 in Harris County and the three suspects now face charges.
While Coleman, who faces a charge of aggravated robbery, was booked in Harris County Jail, Hamptom and Maneebullah, charged respectively with aggravated robbery and injury to the elderly, remain at large.
One in 10 Americans over age 60 is estimated to have experienced elder abuse, according to Texas Human and Health Services.
Culprits such as the alleged interlopers in Tomball take advantage of elderly people’s vulnerability due to limited mobility, fragile health, or diminished mental capacity.
Prosecutors in the case against Coleman, the suspect now in custody, said she was a thief known for stealing from the elderly, according to KHOU.
In Dallas, as many as 730 robberies had been reported this year as of May 1, according to a DPD report. Due to an alleged ransomware attack on the City of Dallas’ computer servers, recent figures aren’t available.
Just last week four teens and one adult were arrested in connection to a monthlong aggravated robbery spree in District 14 of Dallas, as The Dallas Express reported.
But the Dallas Police Department’s ability to prevent such incidents in a city where crime and vagrancy are rampant is hampered by a staffing shortage, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
DPD employs about 3,100 officers, a number that Dallas Police Association President Mike Mata said in January was at least “400–500 officers short,” according to the Dallas Observer.
As Executive Assistant Chief David Pughes said to NBC DFW, “There is a direct correlation between the number of officers you have and the ability to control violent crime.”
