Woman pays $5,000 in restitution, avoids prison

A 46-year-old Carson City woman was released from probation Tuesday after she showed up in court with proof she had paid $5,000 in restitution, more than five years after she pleaded guilty to grand larceny.

Danah C. Cain pleaded guilty to grand larceny in 2008, admitting she’d taken $6,500 in checks and cash from an 82-year-old woman for whom she worked the previous year. Cain faced a prison sentence if she couldn’t come up with the money.

District Judge Tod Young said it wasn’t his role to address Cain’s benefactor, but he urged her “not to abuse that person or take advantage of him as you have others.”

The victim’s daughter told investigators her mother suffered from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Discrepancies began showing up in the victim’s bank accounts after Cain began working as her caregiver, the daughter said.

According to reports, Cain told investigators she was traveling between Dayton and Gardnerville, and gas mileage ate into her finances. She said she had no child support from her ex-husband and lost her house.

Cain said she began gambling and lost $3,000 that she attempted to repay through the victim’s money.

On Jan. 27, 2009, Senior Judge Robert Rose ordered Cain to pay $125 a month in restitution, when he sentenced her to five years of probation.

On Tuesday, Cain told Young she had been working for three weeks at a fast-food restaurant.