Shonny Shury Vernon

A former Redmond property manager was convicted of stealing more than $13,000 in tenant rent money.

Shonny Shury Vernon was sentenced last week in Deschutes County Circuit Court to seven days in jail after pleading guilty to one count of aggravated first-degree theft.

Vernon, 50, was formerly employed by Cascade Property Management as a property manager for the Bluffs Apartments complex in Redmond, according to court documents.

In May 2018, a number of residents of the complex were shown to be behind on their rent. Nearly all of them were able to provide receipts showing they had in fact paid their rent.

The management company audited Vernon’s work and found thousands of dollars missing.

Police discovered many of these payments were cash, and many were MoneyGrams that had been altered to be paid to Vernon instead of the Bluffs Apartments, according to court documents.

Vernon was found to have stolen more than $13,000 from tenant rental payments. An additional $300 in petty cash was also missing.

In addition to jail, Deschutes County Circuit Court Judge Wells Ashby ordered that Vernon serve two years probation and pay full restitution to Cascade Property Management and First Financial Asset Management.

Vernon’s attorney, Michelle McIver, said her client’s crimes were not drug related and that she stole to feed a gambling addiction.

“Ms. Vernon is quite remorseful,” McIver said. “She has been quite forthright in how she came to take advantage of an employer that was always good to her.”

Following her arrest, Vernon found other employment and has not hidden her crime, McIver said. She’s to have nothing to do with money in her current role.

“Ms. Vernon understands that all this is very generous of her present employer,” McIver said.