Funeral-home owner avoids jail in theft of $300,000 and woman's house

THE ELDERLY women who sat on their front porches on a hot June afternoon while children played in the pool at the Cecil B. Moore Recreation Center across the street found the case of Antoine Turay unbelievable.

Turay, who runs Turay Memorial Funeral Chapel, on 22nd Street near Sergeant, in North Philadelphia, had just pleaded guilty June 11 to stealing more than $300,000 - and a house - from one of their neighbors, a 91-year-old woman.

"Where's he at now?" asked Cynthia McCoy, 86. "Is he in jail?"

Turay, 35, is on 10 years' probation and must repay his victim.

The District Attorney's Office allowed him to plead guilty to misdemeanor theft charges rather than to the felonies he was charged with because of the victim's age.

Turay was arrested June 18, 2014, on charges of theft, theft by deception, receiving stolen property , forgery and tampering with records.

Dawn Whaley, a niece of the victim, said that there had been so many court delays since he was arrested after a yearlong probe, the prosecutor worried that her aunt would become too ill to testify.

"He has one of the best criminal defense attorneys [Jack McMahon], and I think their strategy was to wait until she gets senile or confused or she dies," Whaley said.

McMahon did not return calls from the Daily News seeking comment.

"The thefts were all graded as felonies of the third degree," Assistant District Attorney Yvonne Ruiz said last week.

"Anything over $2,000 is a felony. The offer was made by the commonwealth given that our witness is frail. She is 91 and will be 92 in August."

Instead of jail, Turay must pay $291,000 in restitution and perform 2,500 hours of community service, but the court said that that service cannot involve any work with senior citizens.

On June 11, the day that Turay pleaded guilty, he had to pay Whaley's aunt a $15,000 cashier's check immediately. He also must pay her $1,000 a month in electronic payments deducted from his bank account.

"If he misses two payments in a row, he will be taken into custody," Ruiz said.

But Whaley said that it would take 23 years for Turay to repay the $291,000 he owes her aunt. Prior to the plea deal and the $15,000 payment, officials had recovered $6,000 from Turay.

Whaley, a nurse who lives in Delaware County, said that her aunt - who told the Daily News that she didn't want her name printed - once worked for the Social Security Administration and had always been savvy about managing her money for retirement.

At first, Whaley said, she thought the man who ran the funeral home a few doors away from her aunt's home was simply being a good friend who always dropped by whenever Whaley and her husband visited.

"He was either already there, or he came over as soon as we arrived - even on Sundays.

"We thought he was just a local person doing a good deed," Whaley said. "He or one of his employees would take her to get her hair done or take her to the doctor's office."

Eventually, Whaley said, she learned that Turay was helping her aunt pay her bills.

He was also helping himself to the aunt's bank accounts. About $300,000 was taken between 2009 and 2013, police said.

Whaley said that she was visiting her aunt one day in 2013 when she found bank statements with large, suspicious withdrawals.

"She would have no reason to have an $1,800-a-month credit-card bill. She's a little old lady living in North Philadelphia. She's not going shopping all the time."

Whaley said that there was at least one card transaction from the aunt's bank to pay Men's Warehouse about $700.

"I said, 'Auntie, it looks like something is wrong,' " Whaley said. "He even called her 'Grandmom.' "

Whaley said that her aunt "can't comprehend how someone can use a computer and take money out of her accounts. She doesn't even own a computer."

Whaley said that her aunt, with Turay's help, also cashed in a $90,000 annuity that once provided $700 a month in income.

"The records show the money going in as a check and then coming out as cash," Whaley said. "My aunt doesn't know where the money went."

Last Tuesday, Turay stood outside the funeral home dressed in a red tank top and black sweat pants.

"I'm glad it's over," he said, when asked about his guilty plea. "I believe both parties are satisfied."

Turay faces charges in another case in which he is one of six men - including a lawyer, another funeral-home director and a real-estate agent - accused of scheming to steal the house of a South Philadelphia woman after she died.