TUNICA – A funeral home employee has received a suspended sentence after authorities said she took money from a family to bury their child and then used it for her personal use. Frances Powell, 62, of Tunica, threw herself upon the mercy of the court after she was found guilty of false pretense and embezzlement, said Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood.
Hood said Powell, who worked for Memorial Funeral Home, in Tunica, charged a grieving couple $600 to perform a funeral service for their infant child when she knew the funeral home offered those services for free.
Powell was also charged with embezzlement for writing checks on the funeral home’s bank account and purchasing several personal items for herself including furniture, cosmetics and tobacco.
Powell appeared before Judge Charles Webster in Tunica County Circuit Court this month where she was sentenced to three years in jail, with three years suspended, two years supervised probation and one year unsupervised probation for the false pretense charge.
She was also ordered to pay $600 in restitution, court costs and a $500 fine.
On the embezzlement charge, Powell entered an open plea (meaning she refused to accept the state’s recommended sentence) and she was sentenced to five years in jail with five years suspended, with two years supervised probation and three years unsupervised probation.
She was also ordered to pay $5,000 restitution, court costs, a $500 fine and $250 to the Crime Victim’s Compensation Fund.
The sentences are to run concurrent.
“I am proud of our prosecutors and the Tunica County jury for convicting this defendant on such disgusting acts,” said Hood.
Both cases were prosecuted by Special Assistant Attorneys General Jim Giddy and Marvin Sander with the Public Integrity Division of the Attorney General’s Office.
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