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Rilya Wilson's Caregiver Headed To Prison

POSTED: Thursday, February 27, 2003
UPDATED: 1:09 pm EST February 27,2003

Rilya Wilson's former caregiver Geralyn Graham learned her fate today in a Miami-Dade County courtroom.

Geralyn GrahamGraham (pictured), 56, was sentenced to two years behind bars for a variety of fraud charges, which were unrelated to 6-year-old Wilson's disappearance.

Geralyn Graham was convicted Jan. 16 on state charges of vehicle title fraud, obtaining a vehicle by trick, and two counts of forgery.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Daryl Trawick sentenced Graham to six months consecutively on each count. Graham also received five years of probation, 500 hours of community service, mental health evaluation and treatment and nearly $3,000 in court costs and legal fees.

The fraud case represents one of five sets of charges against Graham, who has maintained that Wilson was taken from her home two years ago by state workers -- a year before the youngster's absence was discovered.

Rilya, who would now be 6, remains missing and no charges have been filed in her disappearance.

Graham had faced up to 20 years in prison but sentencing guidelines called for probation to up to a year in jail. She has been held at the Miami-Dade County Jail since her October state arrest.

Prosecutors say Graham assumed the identity of longtime friend Bonnie Jean Joyner of Memphis, Tenn., to buy the SUV days after state social workers realized Rilya was missing last April.

Graham was indicted Feb. 6 on seven federal counts of fraudulent misuse of Social Security numbers.

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