By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

Sentencing has been delayed pending a mental evaluation of a rural Seneca man who bilked an elderly Joplin woman out of more than $16,000 last year.

Marty Rickey, 34, originally was scheduled to be sentenced Friday in Jasper County Circuit Court on three counts of financial exploitation of the elderly. He had pleaded guilty to those charges in June.

But Rickey’s defense attorney, public defender Darren Wallace, said Rickey has suffered repeated seizures that at times required hospitalization since the guilty plea earlier this summer.

Rickey is now on medication, Wallace said, and asked that Rickey undergo a mental evaluation and temporary hospitalization to determine Rickey’s mental fitness before proceeding with sentencing. Wallace did say he did not think Rickey’s seizures affected his previous guilty plea, since they occurred sometime afterward.

Assistant Jasper County Prosecutor John Nicholas said he could find no law to preclude the examination.

Circuit Judge David Mouton then granted Wallace’s motion for the evaluation. A new sentencing date has not been set.

Rickey has faced a number of charges in multiple counties over the past year.

In August, Rickey was sentenced to a pair of 10-year prison sentences, to be served concurrently, for charges of first-degree burglary and financial exploitation of an elderly person in Newton County.

In December, Ricky attempted to swindle an 85-year-old south Joplin woman by demanding that she pay him $2,120 for roof repairs that he had not performed. That incident triggered the charge of financial exploitation. In January, Rickey broke into a rural Newton County home while its 72-year-old occupant was there. Rickey had falsely claimed to be with a Joplin company and had tried to get the man to pay for repairs to his roof that had not been done.

In Jasper County, Rickey was arrested after he bilked a 76-year-old Joplin woman out of $16,428. He and a co-defendant, Jeramie W. Furnas, on Dec. 17, 2008, asked the woman for payment in advance to repair holes in the siding of the woman’s house and put a sealant on her roof. The woman wrote checks for $6,628 and $4,800 to Rickey and made out checks to the co-defendant, for $3,900, according to court records.

Rickey returned a week later telling the victim he had trouble cashing her checks and convinced her to write another check for $1,100.

The pair didn’t make any repairs.

Rickey also admitted to taking $163 from an 85-year-old man after offering to repair loose shingles while representing himself as being with an insurance company. That incident happened Jan. 5, 2009.