Tuolumne County District Attorney Cassandra Jenecke announced today that on July 22, 2025, the Honorable Judge Robert B. Westbrook, a Stanislaus County Superior Court judge handling these cases on assignment, sentenced 68-year-old Shirley Eckhart of Groveland and her 45-year-old daughter Heather Wilson each to a total of 5 years in State Prison. Their sentence comes after two separate juries, who heard the cases jointly, found each defendant guilty of two counts of Grand Theft by Embezzlement by an Employee and found true enhancements regarding of Excessive Loss (over $100,000), Aggravated White Collar Crime Loss over $500,000, and two aggravating factors that the manner in which the crime was carried out indicated planning, sophistication, or professionalism and that the crime involved an actual taking of great monetary value.
Ms. Eckhart and Ms. Wilson were employed by Moore Brothers Scavenger Company, a local family run business that has been in operation in Tuolumne County for more than fifty years. They were clerical office workers who, as part of their job duties, handled billing and paid company expenses. Ms. Wilson also assisted with payroll. The Moore’s treated them like family and trusted them implicitly. Despite this, the mother-daughter duo first crafted a wage scheme where they would periodically give themselves unauthorized wage increases. Then in January of 2020, they constructed a sophisticated fraudulent check scheme. This went on until one of the family members got suspicious in early 2023 that Ms. Eckhart and Ms. Wilson were living beyond their means and launched an internal investigation which ultimately ended up revealing both schemes.
Ms. Eckhart’s and Ms. Wilson’s actions were especially egregious because they took advantage of a time when the Moore family’s attention became divided after one of the owners became ill with cancer, later passing away from his illness shortly after the mother-daughter duo’s treachery had been discovered. To this day, the Moore family is still working hard to pay off and get out from under the debt the business incurred at the hands of Ms. Eckhart’s and Ms. Wilson’s actions. The Moore family was also devastated by the betrayal of the trust they placed in Ms. Eckhart and Ms. Wilson.
When law enforcement arrested Ms. Eckhart for these crimes, she first attempted to claim that the Moore family was crooked, stole their identities from their personnel records, and set them up. After being confronted with the evidence that the money went into both Ms. Eckhart’s and Ms. Wilson’s personal bank accounts, she eventually admitted what she and her daughter had done with the fraudulent check scheme but claimed she had no idea that they had taken that much money. When asked, Ms. Eckhart admitted she never should have done it but that they, referring to some of the Moore family, “do not deserve an apology.” Ms. Wilson later claimed she too had no idea that they had taken that much money.
Under California law grand theft on its own is not state prison eligible. If more than $100,000 is taken during a theft, then there is a presumption against the granting of probation except in unusual circumstances where the interests of justice are best served. When two or more related felonies occur, and it is proven that the amount stolen exceeds $500,000, then the crimes become state prison eligible, and that allegation also increases the total amount of time someone so convicted is exposed to in state prison.
Neither Ms. Eckhart nor Ms. Wilson ever apologized to the Moore family for what they did to them. In the People’s opinion, they also never expressed any true remorse for the crimes they committed. At sentencing, Judge Westbrook referred to the amount of money stolen as being staggering. He stated that there were no unusual factors that would support granting probation. He then sentenced each of them to a total of five years in state prison and ordered that they pay restitution in the amount of $593,643.07 with interest at the rate of ten percent per annum starting from the date of sentencing.
The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Samantha Arnerich.
