A Grand Bay couple charged with multiple counts of elder abuse appeared in court Monday as their case moved one step closer to indictment.
Donny and Tilena Owens were bound over to a grand jury following the hearing, according to the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office.
Veterans Found Living in Deplorable Conditions
The couple was arrested after the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports that veterans were living in deplorable conditions inside a home along Lakeview Lane Extension in Grand Bay.
Investigators said the men living there appeared to have gone without medical care for some time. All six people found in the home were taken to the hospital for evaluation and treatment.
Charges and the Couple’s Boarding-Home Business
The Owenses, who operated the residence under the name Square One Life Management LLC, each faced one count of first-degree elder abuse and neglect along with five counts of second-degree elder abuse and neglect, according to the sheriff’s office. Detectives and federal investigators seized hundreds of paper records from the home after the June 2020 arrests, which Capt. Paul Burch, the agency’s chief investigator, described as “mounds of documents.”
Sheriff’s officials said the six residents — all military veterans — paid about $700 a month to live in the roughly 1,100-square-foot, three-bedroom house, where investigators counted five beds and a single recliner. Burch said at least one resident received veterans benefits and that authorities were working to determine how the men came to live there.
Defense Disputed the Characterization
Attorney Dennis Knizley, representing Donny Owens, called the case overblown and disputed that conditions were deplorable, describing the operation as a voluntary boarding home where residents could leave at any time. He said the home provided three meals a day, medication assistance and laundry service, and noted that family members visited and called regularly without complaint.
Knizley also said two other facilities owned by the couple remained open, and that the Alabama Department of Human Resources inspected both before and after the arrests. The defense acknowledged that food cabinets and the refrigerator were padlocked overnight but said residents had access to snacks and water after hours.