Maine woman who buried best friend in her backyard avoids jail time after pleading guilty
By Jim Keithley
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PARIS, Maine (WMTW) — A Maine woman who admitted to burying her best friend’s body in her backyard years ago will not go to jail.
Vernelle Jackson, 87, pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse, theft and forgery during an appearance in Oxford County Court on Monday.
Jackson had also been accused of collecting checks that were in her dead friend’s name. As a result, the judge ordered Jackson to pay $10 per month in restitution.
On Sept. 16, 2019, members of the Maine State Police unearthed the body of Mae Shelton from Jackson’s backyard in the town of Norway.
The following day, Jackson told Maine’s Total Coverage that Shelton died of natural causes at the age of 80 in the Harrison Road home where they lived together. According to Jackson, Shelton’s dying wish was to be buried in the backyard.
“‘I want you to promise me, and don’t let me down, I want to be buried in your yard so I’ll be close to you,'” Jackson said Shelton told her.
Jackson told Maine’s Total Coverage that she put Shelton’s body in a tarp and dragged it to the backyard. She then spent about two days digging the hole.
“I have COPD. I couldn’t breathe that good,” Jackson said in September 2019.
Jackson said she and Shelton, who had met decades earlier in the South, only had each other and no close family. Daniel Dubé, Jackson’s lawyer, said Monday that his client was not telling the whole truth about that story.
“There were others involved in the case, and so I think that influenced behavior,” Dubé said.
Dubé claimed a relative helped Jackson dispose of Shelton’s body and then told her what to do with Shelton’s checks that were coming to the house.
In the years that followed Shelton’s death, prosecutors said Jackson was collecting Shelton’s Supplemental Security Income (SSI) checks and retirement checks from the state of Virginia, where Shelton previously lived. Jackson was also accused of using Shelton’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Court documents state the checks totaled more than $30,000.
Jackson was also accused of writing bad checks totaling more than $8,000 out of Shelton’s credit union checkbook.
“There were others involved in the financial side of it who pled guilty,” Dubé said.
Dubé said Jackson pleaded guilty so she could take responsibility for her role.
“She very much has always wanted to respect her friend Mae’s wishes. But at the end of the day, she did have to accept responsibility for the financial aspects of the case and for the technical violation regarding the corpse,” Dubé said.
The judge called this a sad case and said the penalties would have been much worse if Jackson had been in better health.
Jackson’s plea on Monday comes nearly three months after a previous plea hearing went awry.
In September, Jackson was expected to plead guilty to two counts of theft, two counts of theft by deception, one count of forgery and one count of abuse of a corpse as part of a deal with state prosecutors. She pleaded guilty to the two counts of theft and the charge of abuse of a corpse. But when the judge asked for her plea for theft by deception, Jackson pleaded not guilty, which invalidated the plea deal.
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