Posted in Felonies on November 14, 2014
John L. Kalamafoni, 23, has been sentenced 120 days in jail with credit for 32 days served after pleading guilty to charges connected to art theft. The accused, along with Toakase Tovo, 20, stole over 130 pieces of Native American artwork in 2011 and 2012 from an elderly Vancouver woman with dementia. Tovo worked at the victim’s home as an in-home care provider.
They stole about $320,000 worth of art and sold it to collectors and antiques dealers around Portland. Kalamafoni was charged with first-degree theft, second-degree possession of stolen property and second-degree trafficking in stolen property. The Clark County Superior Court judge in his case ordered him to help Tovo pay $78, 455 in restitution on top of his jail sentence. Tovo was sentenced to 14 months in prison.
The adult children of the victim, Margaret Sotta, said that she is completely dependent on caregivers. Her husband, Robert Sotta, died in 2011 and left his large collection of Native American art to his wife. He had hired Lavinia’s Home Care and Placement Agency to care for him and his wife 24 days a day. Lavinia Tovo and her daughter, Toakase Tovo, were the caretakers. Their services were terminated in 2012. After the caretakers were terminated, the victim’s daughter noticed many of the art pieces were missing. Sotta’s children took inventory and discovered that 108 pieces had disappeared.
Investigators found some of the stolen pieces on an art gallery website, and a Portland antiques dealer and two Native American art collectors said they purchased some artwork from people matching the descriptions of Tovo and Kalamafoni.
Kalamafoni’s Vancouver defense attorney said that his client had a “lesser role” in the thefts than Toakase Tovo, emphasizing that he had not been the one working as Sotta’s care provider.
Source: The Columbian, “Man gets 120 days for his role in Vancouver art theft,” Patty Hastings, November 13, 2014.
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