A 48-year-old Kent man pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges of second-degree manslaughter and first-degree theft for allegedly letting his 86-year-old mother die in their Kent apartment as well as stealing nearly $180,000 from her bank account.
Joselito Dagamac Hondolero entered the pleas in King County Superior Court at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. He is scheduled to return to court for a hearing on Dec. 3, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Hondolero was booked and released on $25,000 bail on Thursday from the county jail, according to jail records.
Prosecutors allege Hondolero’s criminal negligence in taking care of his mother between Sept. 22, 2013 and Jan. 22, 2014, caused the death of Adriana D. Hondolero on Jan. 22, according to charging papers filed Nov. 13. He reportedly spent her money on casino gambling, a cruise, a vehicle and other items.
The case began after Hondolero called 911 on Jan. 22 to report his mother’s death. Kent Police arrived and funeral home officials came later to recover the body at the family’s request, according to charging papers. But funeral home staff refused to take the body because of its bad condition and contacted the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Adult Protective Services, a division of the state Department of Social and Health Services, initially investigated the case and reported the autopsy showed Adriana Hondolero was in an adult diaper completely soiled and filled with feces. The woman had significant bedsores and weighed just 63 pounds at the time of her death after she used to weigh as much as 130 pounds.
Her cause of death was acute pneumonia and infected pressure ulcers (bedsores), according to the medical examiner.
Kent Police investigated the death and Hondolero told a detective that his mother had lived with him and his wife for about three years. He and his brother served as caretakers until his brother died in April 2013 and Hondolero became the sole caretaker. His mother was diagnosed with dementia in 2010. She was last seen by her physician in June 2011. The son told detectives his mother had been bed-bound for about the last four months of her life and had stopped taking medications about a year before her death.
He said he didn’t take his mother to a doctor because she didn’t want to go. He added that in her final days she lost the ability to eat and speak. He said he didn’t think her bedsores were that bad.
As far as the thefts, according to charging documents, Joselito Hondolero between June 2012 and June 2013 made 33 cash withdrawals for a total of $16,106 at ATM machines at the Muckleshoot and Tulalip casinos and from a Norwegian Dawn cruise ship from a savings account he set up for himself with his mother’s money. He reportedly made 88 other cash withdrawals at the casinos between June 2010 and December 2013 from two of his mother’s accounts totaling $34,726.
Besides the casino withdrawals, another 177 ATM withdrawals between June 2012 and January 2014 from his account and his mother’s two accounts totaled $114,570.
“Adriana was not in any condition to leave her home, let along go shopping or gambling,” a Kent detective wrote in the charging papers about who spent the money. “She was diagnosed with dementia prior to her last doctor’s appointment on June 10, 2011.”
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