He was a 72-year-old business owner, a local character who often called himself the "mayor of Fruit Cove."
She was a 38-year-old student and restaurant worker who professed her undying love and eventually married him.
But the relationship between Billy Shelton and Khadija Rhoualmi was no May-December romance.
In fact, a probate judge said, it was an "extreme fraud" cooked up by Rhoualmi and her lawyer boyfriend to bilk Shelton out of his considerable assets by taking advantage of his deteriorating mental health before his 2006 death.
"It was a sham marriage," Circuit Judge Peter Dearing wrote in a decision finalized last month. "... Shelton was an incapacitated, vulnerable and elderly adult who was exploited, unduly influenced and defrauded by Rhoualmi."
The scam was so audacious the judge took the rare step of posthumously annulling the marriage.
There are so many lowlifes in this world. At least a judge got the chance to take action.
