Fourth Person Pleads Guilty in Unlicensed Personal Care Home Case

A Cartersville man has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the operation of an unlicensed personal care home in Marietta which kept six women in oppressive conditions.

Terry Catron, 56, pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering, theft, deprivation, false imprisonment, and making false statements for his role in running the home in the 900 block of Laurel Springs Lane in Marietta.

According to the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office, Catron and co-defendants Raequel Alita Penny, Bilal Penny, and Elijah Cole allegedly kept six women in a poorly lit, cramped basement and provided inadequate toilet facilities, food, and medicine for them. Prosecutors claim the six women were forced to use a toilet affixed to a concrete floor and were cloistered in rooms made by plywood walls that were as small as 11 by five feet.

“Those six women came to Ms. Penny and Mr. Catron with real need. They needed someone to take care of them. Instead, they were exploited and abused,” said Jason Marbutt, assistant district attorney in a Cobb County District Attorney’s Office release. “Ms. Penny and Mr. Catron lived upstairs in well-lit and spacious accommodations, while the six victims were forced to share cramped quarters in a dark basement with a bathroom that had sheets for walls and a toilet affixed to a concrete floor.”

“If we are measured by how we treat the weakest among us, then Ms. Penny and Mr. Catron are where they deserve to be – prison,” ADA Marbutt said. “At least while there they will have larger living spaces than their victims did.”

Cobb and Marietta police shut down the care home in September of 2013. Raequel Perry turned herself in to authorities on Sept. 10 of that year.

Catron and Perry were the caregivers at the home, and have taken the brunt of the punishment in court for their crimes. Following her guilty plea last month, Raequel Perry was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison and 10 years on probation.

Catron was given the same sentence following his guilty plea on Friday afternoon.

Cole and Bilal Penny were given probation.