A ‘greedy and grotesque’ L.A. woman that was caught in an elaborate squatting scheme has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Carolina Herrling, who also goes by the name Carrie Phenix, 44, of West Hills was sentenced on Friday by a U.S. District Judge for targeting elderly men and taking over their million-dollar mansions.
Herrling has also been accused of disposing of one victim’s body after he died in a home that she soon called her own.
In 2020, she found a lavish home in Sherman Oaks, owned by Charles Wilding, 71, broke into it, discovered his dead body, took over the home and disposed of his remains.
The following year, Herrling decided to fraudulently sell a mansion in Encino that was under the ownership of Robert Tascon, 53. He committed suicide on September 11, 2022.
‘This lady is a big manipulator and con artist and she’s gotten away with using the dead. Hold her accountable and don’t let her do this to anyone else,’ Miracle Williams, Tascon’s heartbroken partner, told the Los Angeles Times.
Carolina Herrling, who also goes by the name Carrie Phenix, 44, of West Hills was sentenced on Friday by a U.S. District Judge for targeting elderly men and taking over their million-dollar mansions
In 2020, she found a lavish home in Sherman Oaks, owned by Charles Wilding (left) broke into it, discovered his dead body and took over the home while he rotted. In 2021, she fraudulently sold a mansion in Encino that was under the ownership of Robert Tascon (right)
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Herrling pleaded guilty last year to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
She has also been ordered to pay $3.88million in restitution fees for her crimes.
‘This defendant’s misconduct was both greedy and grotesque, causing profound pain to the victims and their loved ones,’ United States Attorney Martin Estrada said in a press release.
‘There must be serious consequences for those who prey on vulnerable communities, such as older adults, and my office will remain steadfast in bringing these offenders to justice.’
Court documents revealed that Herrling and her co-conspirators ‘preyed on vulnerable victims’ that lived in wealthy neighborhoods and resided in homes that ‘appeared unkept.’
In order to do so, her and her team would use online mapping programs and visited affluent neighborhoods in search of properties with overgrown shrubs and algae-filled pools to identify the victims, the press release said.
In 2020, when she stumbled upon Wilding’s home in Sherman Oaks mansion, her and her associates broke into the home before calling it their own.
‘At some point in September 2020, the victim died – investigators are uncertain how – and they believe that Herrling and others took over the property while his body decomposed in his home,’ the press release said.
Instead of reporting his dead body, Herrling and her crew proceeded to steal all of his assets as his body rotted away inside the home.
According to the release, Herrling use a ‘forged power-of attorney form’ and pretended to work on Wilding’s behalf as she stole his home and took over his financial accounts.
When Tascon briefly moved out of his home to live with his partner after he developed an alcohol problem, Herrling moved into his mansion and sold it. (pictured: Tascon’s former mansion located on 5309 Louise Ave in Encino, California)
In 2021, the victim’s neighbors reported Wilding missing and police started to investigate.
Once they got a hold of Herrling, she told them that she was a ‘close friend’ of his that had been listed as the trustee of his family trust that was forged to look like his mother, who died in 2017, created, court documents said.
She then told authorities that Wilding had moved from Sherman Oaks to Carpinteria, even thought he was already dead.
Investigators soon found that Herrling and her co-conspirators re-located the victim’s body to her West L.A. apartment and attempted to dissolve of it in chemicals.
When that plan failed, the scheming team decided to dismember Wilding’s body throughout the Bay Area. A member of her crew even took their sailboat out into the San Francisco Bay and dropped his body parts in the water.
Wilding’s remains have never been found, the press release said.
After his death, police found that Tascono had a history of mental illness and was involved in fraud litigation (pictured: Tascon seen in an undated mugshot)
During Herrling’s hearing, Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong said that Wilding was ‘a man and a human being’ and that Herrling instead treated him ‘like a cash register.’
Prosecutors said that Wilding was listed as the beneficiary and executor to the will of another victim, but that document that Herrling claimed she ‘discovered’ in a safe deposit box that was rented by his deceased mother, was also forged by her.
Court documents revealed that according to the forged will, the missing victim was set to inherit an estate worth more than $1.7million- assets that fell under Herrling’s control as the ‘trustee’ of the estate.
In 2022, her and her associates defrauded Tascon, a man that came from a wealthy family and had two trusts set up for him, according to a U.S. Postal Inspection Service report.
He briefly moved out of his home to live with his partner after he developed an alcohol problem, Travis Hargraves, Tascon’s lawyer and case manager told the Los Angeles Times.
During that time, Herrling moved into his mansion and with fake documents and another forged will, she pretended to be Tascon, created accounts, sold his home for $1.5million and pocketed the money from the sale.
According to the affidavit, she used the money to purchase a home in West Hills.
Herrling pleaded guilty last year to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She has also been ordered to pay $3.88million in restitution fees for her crimes
Court documents revealed that Herrling and her co-conspirators ‘preyed on vulnerable victims’ that lived in wealthy neighborhoods and resided in homes that ‘appeared unkept’
According to Hargraves, the home was one of his client’s last assets, along with monthly payments form his trusts.
Once the sold was from under him, Tascon became entangled in a vicious legal battle with Herrling and filed a lawsuit against her.
Hartgraves recalled his client telling him that he feared that he was never going to get his home back.
‘The fraudulent sale just about crashed him,’ Hartgraves told Lyndon Versoza, a postal investigator involved in the case.
The victim killed himself in September and according to the police report, he did have a history of metal illness and was involved in fraud litigation.
Herrling said she was not involved in the sale of Tascon’s home and that she only received $150 to facilitate the notary for the sale.
She was unable to describe Tascon and claimed that she did not take everything from him, the affidavit said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Brown said that Tascon ‘had one property and he lost it.’
In October 2023, one of Herrling’s accomplices, Matthew Jason Kroth, 50, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
Kroth faces up to two decades in federal prison for wire fraud and up to 40 years for his methamphetamine charge.