Rejecting leniency, federal judge sends designer to prison for stealing from elderly woman

An interior designer whose clients once included rich and famous Kentuckians was sentenced to 21 months in prison Thursday for stealing over $285,000 from an elderly widow with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Wayne Jenkins, 66, asked through counsel for probation or to do his time on home detention, citing a severe medical condition that was not disclosed in court.

But U.S. District Judge David Hale said those would not be “just punishment.”

“The fraud in this case cannot be minimized,” he said. “It played out over several years against a vulnerable victim.”

Jenkins, who will be allowed to report to prison later, chose not to address the court.

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Mark Eliason, his former business and romantic partner – and the son of victim June Eliason, who died in 2019 at age 95 − said in an interview the sentence was too lenient but he was glad the case is over.

Demanding in court that Jenkins go to prison, Assistant U.S. Attorney Corinne Keel said Jenkins' crime was “not merely a breach of fiduciary duty” but also an exploitation of a friendship” with both Eliason and his mother.”

Addressing the court, Mark Eliason’s husband, Jeff Howard, said June Eliason, a nurse, had worked her whole life and Jenkins drained the legacy she had hoped to leave behind.

“She was betrayed and she should not have had to end her life that way,” he said.

Under advisory sentencing guidelines, Jenkins would have gotten 27 to 33 months behind bars, but Hale reduced that amount because of his medical condition.

He also ordered Jenkins to pay $285,336 in restitution and to serve three years on supervised release after his sentence expires.

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The Courier Journal previously reported that Jenkins pleaded guilty in April to one count of bank fraud.

The government charged that he used forgery, unauthorized online banking access and other methods to create the false impression that Eliason or his mother had authorized withdrawals, checks and payments from her accounts. In court papers, he was accused of forging her name to make online payments for his personal American Express card.

Keel said Jenkins used June Eliason’s money to maintain a lavish lifestyle that included spending on travel, dining, entertainment, vehicles and clothing.

In an interview, Eliason and Howard said Jenkins dined out nearly every night, threw parties for more than a hundred guests, drove a Jaguar, a Range Rover and a Mercedes at various times and sent out his sheets for dry cleaning.

The clients of Jenkins Eliason included Gov. John Y. Brown Jr., Yum Brands chief executive CEO David Novak and Ashland Oil Chairman John Hall – and their wives.

Eliason and Jenkins parted ways personally about 15 years ago and professionally about four years ago, amid nasty allegations and counterclaims about bad checks and unpaid bills.

Eliason depended on Jenkins to handle their bookkeeping and didn’t suspect anything was amiss until payment for his mother’s nursing home bounced, according to court papers. When he finally checked his mother’s accounts, he found they were practically empty, records show.

“Mark rolled up in a ball and cried,” Howard said. “He wanted to die."

Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky interior designer Wayne Jenkins sentenced to prison for theft