A former Kent insurance agent wants to withdraw her guilty plea to 10 counts of first-degree theft for stealing more than $1 million in retirement funds from five people.
Jasmine Jamrus-Kassim told King County Superior Court Judge Sharon Armstrong on Friday that she wanted to withdraw her guilty plea from Oct. 31, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Jamrus-Kassim had been scheduled to be sentenced Friday. Armstrong postponed the sentencing hearing so Jamrus-Kassim could consult with her attorney.
Jamrus-Kassim has had two previous sentencing hearings postponed because she has wanted to change her plea and asked for a new attorney.
“It is not the norm to have several different sentencing (hearings) but it is also not rare for defendants to get cold feet and try to back out of pleas once they have thought about the time that they face as sentencing gets closer,” said Ian Goodhew, spokesman for the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, in an email.
If a defendant decides to go forward with a motion to withdraw a plea and the defense attorney disagrees, the conflict between client and attorney requires new counsel, Goodhew said.
“It can get messy at this stage and the judge needs to sort it out,” Goodhew said. “We will keep simply asking to complete sentencing at the next date.”
Jamrus-Kassim has had two attorneys so far, a private attorney and then a public defender.
Jamrus-Kassim pleaded guilty to 10 counts of first-degree theft for stealing more than $1 million in retirement funds from five men and women ages 74 to 90. Jamrus-Kassim remains in custody at the county jail in Seattle.
Prosecutors will recommend an exceptional sentence of five years, eight months based on the vulnerability of the victims. The standard sentence range is three years, seven months to four years, nine months.
Washington State Patrol troopers arrested Jamrus-Kassim in March in Kent. King County prosecutors charged her with 21 counts of first-degree theft.
Chicago-based Bankers Life and Casualty, one of the companies that Jasmine Jamrus-Kassim worked for as an independent agent, agreed in October to replace the money stolen by the agent.
State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler said an investigation by his office found that five clients of Jamrus-Kassim repeatedly cashed out large portions of their annuities with Banker’s Life and Casualty from 2007 to 2009. The money was then pocketed by Kassim. She resigned from Bankers in January 2011.
Kassim’s financial records showed thousands of dollars spent on clothes, jewelry and a trip to Mexico, according to the insurance commissioner’s office. They also show large payments to online psychic advisors, including $20,000 in charges from one psychic website in one month.
The payment amounts to the victims by Bankers were $512,112, $488,071, $116,070, $65,321 and $929. The victims were from Bellevue, Renton and Seattle.
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