A North Carolina caretaker who wrote herself two $50,000 checks from the bank account of a 100-year-old man she was hired to help has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison.
Juanita Hairston Garris became John Googe’s caretaker after he fell inside his Winston-Salem home in 2022 and needed assistance with daily activities.
Part of Garris’s work eventually included helping Googe write checks from his personal checking account. Investigators later discovered that she had begun writing checks from the same account to herself, according to ABC45.
Two of those checks totaled $100,000. Garris maintained that one was a bonus and the other a gift from Googe, but after her trial began this week, she pleaded guilty to two felony charges.
She Began Helping Him After a Fall at Home
Googe fell at his home in the fall of 2022 and subsequently hired Hairston Home Care to assist him with daily living. Garris was assigned as his caretaker and soon began helping him write checks from his personal account. That financial access later became the focus of an investigation by the Winston-Salem Police Department’s Fraud Unit.
Police identified two large checks written in 2025. On Jan. 7, Garris wrote herself a check for $50,000, which she characterized as a bonus. On May 15, she wrote herself another $50,000 and described that payment as a gift from Googe.
Winston-Salem police responded to a fraud report involving Googe and Garris on July 27, 2025. Corporal Lacey Barnes and Detective Mark Barker investigated the financial activity.
Her Trial Started, Then She Pleaded Guilty
Garris’s trial began Aug. 24 in Forsyth County Superior Court before Judge L. Todd Burke. The case did not reach a jury verdict. The following day, Garris pleaded guilty to obtaining property by false pretenses involving at least $100,000, a Class C felony, and exploiting a disabled or elderly adult’s trust, a Class F felony. Burke consolidated the two offenses into one Class C felony for sentencing.
She Will Spend at Least 50 Months in Prison
Garris received an active sentence of 50 to 72 months in the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. The minimum term is four years and two months, while the maximum is six years.
Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill said the case involved the exploitation of a particularly vulnerable older resident and expressed hope that the sentence would deter others from targeting elderly victims. Googe’s family thanked the district attorney’s office and Winston-Salem police for their work on the case.
Families Can Add Safeguards When a Caregiver Helps With Money
A caregiver may legitimately need to help an older adult pay bills or prepare checks, but that access does not have to come without independent oversight. The North Carolina Department of Justice identifies financial exploitation as the illegal or improper use of an older or disabled adult’s resources for someone else’s benefit.
Families can review bank statements regularly, arrange transaction alerts and consider having another trusted person monitor unusually large checks or withdrawals. North Carolina law also allows customers of financial institutions to provide a list of trusted people who may be contacted when suspected exploitation involving an older adult is detected.
Concerns about financial exploitation can be reported to local law enforcement. North Carolina also directs reports involving an older or disabled adult who may need protective services to the local Department of Social Services and Adult Protective Services.
The North Carolina Department of Justice accepts reports involving fraud against seniors through its Consumer Protection Division at 1-877-566-7226. Bank statements, canceled checks, messages, caregiver agreements and records showing changes in financial activity should be preserved if exploitation is suspected.