Fresno County Trial Alleges Theft, Poisoning Rumors in Elder Estate Case

Stacy Hansen Dovali told a Fresno County Superior Court jury she felt like she was "in the Twilight Zone" after learning the woman hired to care for her ailing father was telling people she was trying to kill him.

"I started hearing that she was telling people that I was trying to kill my dad, or that I was stealing things," Dovali testified. "I liked to cook for my dad, but she would say I was poisoning him. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone."

The testimony came during the ongoing trial of Dovali's stepsister, Gina Abercrombie, and Abercrombie's boyfriend, Justin D. Teel, both of Pleasanton in Alameda County. Prosecutors accuse the pair of stealing more than $700,000 from the estate of Randy Hansen, a Sanger businessman who developed the 18-hole Sherwood Forest Golf Club and died in 2020. Abercrombie and Teel are charged with theft from an elder adult and obtaining money, labor, or property by false pretenses. If convicted, each faces more than five years in prison.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Lisa Urrizola has portrayed Abercrombie and Teel as opportunistic thieves who exploited an ailing Hansen, alleging the pair used deception, isolation, and accomplices to take nearly a million dollars from his estate between February 9, 2017, and March 24, 2020.

Dovali testified that her father suffered a stroke in 2017, after which she stepped in to help him run the golf course, drive him to doctor appointments, and attend physical therapy sessions with him. She had previously run her own fruit and nut brokerage company. It was shortly after Hansen's stroke that she began hearing rumors spread by Beverly Rutherford, a house cleaner and caretaker who prosecutors allege was one of the accomplices in the scheme.

Rutherford was not a stranger to the family. Her husband worked at Sherwood Forest Golf Club, and she had helped Dovali's grandparents around their home. Dovali described her as somewhat of a family friend, which made the alleged betrayal more jarring. Beyond the poisoning rumors, Dovali noticed that photos of herself with her father, and photos of her children, had gone missing or been placed where no one could see them. Despite her growing discomfort at her father's home, she testified she continued helping him with his medical needs.

Rutherford was charged in 2023 with one count of theft from an elder or dependent adult by a caretaker and has since accepted a plea deal, though terms of that agreement have not been publicly detailed.

Chuck Smith, the attorney representing Abercrombie, said he plans to challenge Dovali's account of her devotion to her father and told the court the defense has affidavits and records to refute her testimony.