Anderson Woman Convicted in Deed Case Over $170,000 Home

A Madison Circuit Court 3 jury found a 52-year-old Anderson woman guilty Tuesday of theft, fraud, forgery, and three counts of obstruction of justice. The charges are all felonies and stem from property documents dated June 21, 2022, the day her mother, Willie Mae May, died.

The case began in September 2022, when Kenyatta Carter reported a suspected forgery to Anderson police. Carter told investigators that she and her brother, Maurice May, were listed on the deed to their mother's Anderson home and had completed property paperwork in August 2020. Carter said her younger sister, Malaika Bell, later forged their mother's name to place the deed in Bell's name. The affidavit filed in 2023 states the documents were signed and dated June 21, 2022. Carter also told police that Bell said their mother had instructed her to sign the deed.

Robert and Chastity Glazebrook told investigators that Bell contacted them about notarizing documents. Robert Glazebrook said he and his wife met Bell at the Anderson home on June 21, 2022, after Bell said she held power of attorney for her mother. Chastity Glazebrook notarized an affidavit of survivorship and a warranty deed. The couple said they did not see Willie Mae May or witness her sign the documents.

Detective Travis Thompson of the Anderson Police Department compared signatures on those documents with examples of May's signatures on checks from 2019 and 2020, according to the affidavit. Thompson wrote that the handwriting on the deed documents did not match the check signatures. Medical records cited in the affidavit describe an in-home visit with May on June 17, 2022, four days before her death. The records quote May as 'minimally responsive' and 'unable to communicate' and say she appeared to be 'transitioning to actively dying.' The affidavit says May was receiving morphine and lorazepam.

The affidavit says the estate's attorney told Thompson that Bell did not have power of attorney for May. It lists the home's approximate value as $170,000. Deputy prosecutors Gina Koorsen and Jon Jones presented the state's case. Bell faces a maximum possible sentence of 22 years, the prosecutor said in a news release. Sentencing is set for 8:30 a.m. Nov. 24.