Ex-funeral home director blasted by victims at sentencing today

WARREN

Robert P. McDermott Sr., a former Niles funeral director who pleaded guilty to 10 felony charges for stealing at least $270,000 from about 50 of his customers, will spend three years in prison.

On Wednesday, Judge Ronald Rice of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court said it appears that what McDermott did was “kind of like a Ponzi scheme,” where money from new customers paid for the services to earlier customers.

McDermott, 52, of Lincoln Avenue in Niles, failed to put money that customers paid in advance for funeral services into insurance policies, annuities or trusts as promised. Chuck Morrow, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, told Judge Rice that $235,000 of the $270,000 in thefts involved the elderly.

Insurance companies “honored” the policies for some of the victims even though McDermott never forwarded the money from the customers to the insurance companies, so about $110,000 has been paid to the victims.

Other theft victims may receive compensation through civil suits or through the restitution of $500 per month that Judge Rice ordered McDermott to make once he leaves prison. Morrow said prosecutors will oppose McDermott getting out of prison early.

Several of McDermott’s victims spoke in court, one of them seeking a 20-year prison sentence, another emotionally calling McDermott “lower than low,” to “take advantage of people at the time of death.”

Read more of the hearing and their comments in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.