Iowa City woman accused of stealing from terminally ill man

IOWA CITY - An Iowa City woman is accused of theft and forgery after police say she wrote checks to herself from a terminally ill man's bank account and stole his television after he died.

According to complaints from the Iowa City Police Department, Cynthia S. Garrido, 54, wrote checks to herself totaling $2,700 from the account of a cancer patient who was in no physical or mental condition to make financial decisions. Police said Garrido also paid her cable bill and court fines with checks from his account totaling more than $1,000, along with writing checks to two other people.

Police said a caretaker at the man's home witnessed Garrido remove the checks from his checkbook without prior permission. One check was unsigned, and none of the checks had the man's real signature on them, the complaint said. The caretaker also told police that, when prompted, Garrido had admitted she was writing the checks.

After the man was taken to the hospital last Nov. 21, complaints said other caretakers witnessed Garrido remove his flat-screen television - valued at $500 - from his apartment and place it in the trunk of her car. Police also said she admitted to taking and selling the television - she received $120 for it from Money and More later that day - because she “needed the money.”

The man died at the hospital four days later.

Garrido is accused of forgery and second-degree theft, both of which are class D felonies punishable by up to five years in prison and a $7,500 fine. She is also accused of fourth-degree theft, a serious misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a maximum fine of $1,875.