FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: David Chapman
Phone: (904) 255-3004
Cell: (904) 524-6626
ChapmanD@coj.net
May 31, 2024
DUVAL COUNTY JURY FINDS CAREGIVER GUILTY OF EXPLOITING ELDERLY WOMAN
State Attorney Melissa Nelson announces that a Duval County jury found Loubna Hilani guilty of Exploitation of an Aged Adult; three counts of Dealing in Stolen Property; and three counts of False Verification of Ownership on a Pawnbroker Transaction Form. With the verdict, Hilani faces up to 15 years in Florida State Prison. The Honorable London Kite will sentence Hilani at a later date.
On Aug. 25, 2022, officers with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office responded to a home on Pescara Drive for a theft investigation. When they arrived, the victim’s daughter reported that her 81-year-old mother’s jewelry was missing. Her elderly mother has dementia and other health issues, and Hilani was working as her caregiver while the victim’s main caregiver was away. The victim usually wears specific jewelry every day, and her daughter noticed she hadn’t been wearing it. The victim’s daughter found pawn slips in Hilani’s purse which prompted her to call JSO. The JSO detective ran Hilani’s name in the pawn shop databases and saw she pawned three pieces of jewelry which matched the items that were reported stolen. The victim’s daughter went to the pawn shop and identified her mother’s missing pieces. Store surveillance cameras show Hilani going into the pawn shop three separate times between July 13, 2022, and Aug. 9, 2022. Pawn shop forms also show Hilani’s signature and fingerprints for each piece of the victim’s jewelry that she stole then sold. The victim died soon after these crimes were committed.
The case was investigated by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and prosecuted by Director of Special Prosecution and Human Rights Section Octavius Holliday and Assistant State Attorney Shaina Ruth.