Days after pleading guilty in federal court, a defendant in the Carl DeBrodie case put in a brief court appearance Monday.
Anthony R. Flores, 59, faces charges of client neglect, felony abandonment of a corpse (both class D felonies), first-degree involuntary manslaughter (a class C felony) and two counts of making a false report of a missing person. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Flores has yet to face trial, with trial dates having been pushed back repeatedly due to the ongoing federal case.
On Friday, he and wife Sherry Paulo, 54, pleaded guilty to one count of willfully failing to provide necessary medical care to DeBrodie, resulting in injury to and the death of DeBrodie.
DeBrodie was 31 years old when his remains were found in a Fulton storage unit April 24, 2017, about a week after he was reported missing. He was a developmentally disabled resident of Second Chance Homes of Fulton, a care facility at 298 Claymine Drive, at which Flores and Paulo worked.
According to a Department of Justice news release detailing the guilty plea, Paulo and Flores admitted they observed DeBrodie's health decline beginning in 2014. DeBrodie became unhealthily underweight and pale, and he grew more obviously ill over a period of several months. During this time, Paulo occasionally took DeBrodie's out of his designated residence and put him in the basement of the personal home she shared with Flores.
DeBrodie suffered an acute medical emergency while in the basement of Flores's and Paulo's personal home. Paulo and Flores admitted they purposefully did not seek medical care for DeBrodie, who then died. The two worked to conceal his body, encasing it in concrete and hiding it at the storage unit.
A sentencing date has not yet been set in the federal case. However, it's likely to happen within the next four months, Callaway County Prosecuting Attorney Christopher Wilson told Callaway County Judge Jodie Asel during Monday's status hearing.
Once that is out of the way, the state's case can move forward, he said.
The next hearing has been set for late April.