The victims and prosecutors in the trial of Alfonso Picone of Tamaqua, charged with stealing $315,000 from an elderly Lake Hauto couple, were elated when the jury returned guilty verdicts Thursday.

Picone was charged with siphoning the money from the bank and retirement accounts of John and the late Ella Burnard between 2013 and 2014. The Burnards were 91 years old at the time.Outside the courtroom, Deputy Attorney General Michelle L. Laucella spoke with reporters.“We feel great. There was a lot of hard work put into the case, not just by our office, but by Rush Township police, the Office of Senior Services in Schuylkill County, and obviously the jury — they got it,” she said.As for the Burnards, she said, “He and his wife were taken advantage of, and no member of the Greatest Generation deserves that. He was strong enough to come here and testify, and that took a lot out of him. But he did, and I’m glad he did because it was a great verdict.”Picone’s lawyer, Ross M. Miller of Lansdale, left the courtroom through a back door and so was unable to be interviewed.John Burnard’s son, Kurt Burnard, took him home after both sides presented their closing arguments. They were not present for the verdicts.“I’m just glad that it will be over. At my age, it is stressful. You try to hold up under it, but it gets to you. I hope today is the end of it,” John Burnard, now 93, said earlier in the day.Kurt Burnard said his father’s two hours of testimony Monday “took a lot out of him.”He lives 2½ hours away from his father but spoke with him weekly and visited once a month.Kurt Burnard said he didn’t interfere with his parents’ financial arrangements with Picone because they reassured him everything was fine.Picone, Kurt Burnard said, used concern about his parents’ growing inability to handle their finances to “lure them in and get close to them to get their money.”“If he was really worried about them, he would have worried about their mental state and their physical needs, not just feeding them and taking their money,” he said.“It’s a terrible, rotten thing when someone acts like they’re your friend, and all they want is your money,” he said.“I feel like a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” Kurt Burnard said when contacted by phone after the verdict was in.“He had all that money to spend on lawyers. He could have said, I’m sorry, here’s the money back,” he said.He plans to ask for restitution at the sentencing. Kurt Burnard said he’s read about other similar cases, and hope’s Thursday’s verdict makes those who prey on the elderly think twice.“Maybe this will be a lesson for them,” he said. “It was for Alfie.”