Estate of Carreira CA3

BACKGROUND

Carreira died on August 26, 2022. In September 2022, respondent Sharon Lilinoe- Davis, Carreira’s sister, filed a Petition for Letters of Special Administration as to Carreira’s estate. Mendoza objected and filed her own petition. The probate court appointed Lilinoe-Davis and Mendoza as co-special administrators. Mendoza then filed a Petition for Probate of Will and for Letters of Administration and attached a will that she claimed was signed by Carreira. Lilinoe-Davis objected to the will and filed her own Petition for Letters of Administration. The probate court held a three-day trial in January and February 2024. Mendoza testified at trial that Carreira owned two pieces of property in Siskiyou County. In 2020, when Carreira was 70 years old, Mendoza and Mendoza’s three teenage children moved into an apartment attached to Carreira’s home. Mendoza and Carreira helped care for a friend of Carreira’s who lived in and co-owned Carreira’s other property. Eventually the friend moved in with Carreira, and Mendoza and her children moved into the other property. In 2020, Carreira sold a van and a truck to Mendoza and her son. Shortly before her death in 2022, Carreira signed…