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UPDATE: Guilty Verdict in Neglect Case

STROUDSBURG — A jury deliberated for more than seven hours in Monroe County after more than a week of testimony in an elder abuse death trial. John and Ti...
tedesco Collage

STROUDSBURG -- A jury deliberated for more than seven hours in Monroe County after more than a week of testimony in an elder abuse death trial.

John and Tina Tedesco of Saylorsburg were found guilty of third degree murder, theft, criminal conspiracy, and tampering with evidnce.

Prosecutors said the Tedescos neglected Barbara Rabins so severely that she died.

Attorneys spent more than three hours Friday morning rehashing the gruesome details of this case.

Prosecutors say John and Tina Tedesco were hiding a secret: they stole from Barbara Rabins, left her in deplorable living conditions, and tried to cover it up.

In closing arguments, prosecutors said this husband and wife left behind a trail of guilt.

"It begins with their actions and their words, which were both designed to hide basic facts about who Barbara Rabins was, where she lived, and how she died."

Jurors looked at gruesome autopsy photos, showing the elderly woman's sores, ulcers, and caked-on feces left all over her body.

The Tedescos say they were caring for the woman at their home in Saylorsburg, but troopers believed she was actually living in an apartment on Old Route 115, while the Tedescos were taking thousands of dollars from a trust account set up in Barbara's name.

Rabins, 70, died after choking on a piece of cheese.

The Tedescos actually planned to enter into a plea agreement earlier this year, but then withdrew those pleas in March, heading to trial thinking they could convince a jury they were innocent.

The defense painted a picture of a loving relationship between the Tedescos and the victim, saying the evidence and the allegations didn't match up.

"If she spends her days covered in fecal matter, how are those wounds not infected? How did she not die of sepsis?"

John Tedesco said on the stand during the trial he and his wife did the best they could to care for Rabins, but struggled to get health insurance coverage, and the help they needed.

John and Tina Tedesco are both locked up in the Monroe County prison. They're scheduled to be sentenced in October.

 

 

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