She gets two and half years in prison; ‘The crime was a bold violation of a vulnerable victim — all for selfish gain’

A woman who helped steal more than $250,000 worth of gold, cash and guns from the garage of a 93-year-old man’s Central Point home and then went on a gambling spree, blowing the money in casinos in Oregon and Northern California, was sentenced Friday to two and a half years in prison.

Michelle Kellum, now 44, and another man hit the home after casing it during an open house event and sale earlier in the month, according to a federal prosecutor.

“This was not a random, impulsive crime,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith R. Harper told a judge. “The crime was a bold violation of a vulnerable victim — all for selfish gain.”

Kellum drove accomplice Michael Jason to the house and waited in the car about 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 21, 2023, while he went into the garage and stole about $103,000 in cash, $180,000 in gold coins and five guns, including an Astra 900 machine gun pistol, according to the prosecutor.

They returned to Kellum’s house in Medford where she, her then- husband Jonathan Kinsella and Jason split the stash.

Shortly after the heist, Kellum pawned eight gold coins, which were each worth between $700 and $2,000, and then went on a road trip with a friend to casinos in Oregon and northern California, according to Harper.

During the trip, her friend said Kellum bragged that she had taken about $250,000 in cash and gold coins from an elderly man’s “unlocked safe,” the prosecutor wrote in a sentencing memo.

Jonathan Kinsella took three of the stolen guns. He then traded two of them — a machine gun pistol and rifle — to another man, Curtis L. Hollins, for a .40-caliber handgun, according to the prosecutor.

Kellum pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in federal court in Medford in February.

Assistant Federal Public Defender Devin Huseby argued that Kellum’s crime resulted from her drug relapse on fentanyl and the negative influence of her then-husband and co-defendant, Kinsella. He also argued that the stolen machine gun pistol could be but had not been adapted to fire in a fully automatic-mode.

He urged the court to issue a prison term that would run at the same time as her state sentence for the same crime.

In January, Kellum was sentenced to three years and four months in Jackson County Circuit Court after pleading guilty to first-degree aggravated theft, second-degree burglary and first-degree theft in connection with the same burglary. In a separate state case, she also was sentenced to another year for possession of methamphetamine.

Amid tears, Kellum told U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane, “I am genuinely sorry for all of this. I have replayed that night every night in my head for the past year,” adding that she wished she had said no to drugs before the burglary. She said she intends to repay her debt.

The federal prosecutor urged the judge to tack on the federal prison term to her state sentence, calling the crime “so offensive,” because she preyed on an elderly man and then spent a bunch of what she stole on gambling and vacation.

“This isn’t her first rodeo,” Harper added. Kellum previously stole from a 62-year-old disabled woman she was caring for two decades ago, she said.

Given the gravity of the crime, McShane sentenced Kellum to two years and six months but ordered the prison term to be served at the same time as Kellum’s state sentence. That will allow her to serve her time in federal prison and be released to the community through a transition service to provide her with greater mental health or drug treatment support, he said.

While she is old enough to know better and has multiple prior property and drug convictions and preyed on the elderly previously, she also has bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety and has completed numerous classes while in custody awaiting sentencing, McShane said.

Her alleged accomplices in the Central Point burglary — Kinsella, 52, Jason, 55, and Hollins, 69, — are also facing pending prosecutions in federal court, accused of being felons in possession of one or more firearms.