Woman Sentenced to 15 Years for Attacking Elderly Man With a Brick in California

Laquisha Jones, 30, had pleaded no contest to elder abuse last year and acknowledged using a brick to injure the man, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said Thursday.

The case drew widespread attention after Rodolfo Rodriguez, now 92, was left bloodied, bruised and bewildered on the sidewalk in Willowbrook, an unincorporated area of the county about 15 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, while going for a walk July 4.

He told CNN last year that he passed a woman and a child on his walk, and without warning, the woman began hitting him with a brick. He also said a group of men came over and began kicking him on the ground after the woman told them that he had tried to take away her daughter.

“But that’s not true,” Rodriguez said, according to CNN, adding that he had not bumped into the child.

Prosecutors said Jones attacked Rodriguez “without provocation.”

A witness, Misbel Borjas, posted a video of the aftermath and told CNN she heard a female attacker saying, “Go back to your country. Go back to Mexico.” In the video, Rodriguez is seen sitting on the ground next to a red-stained sidewalk, his face covered in blood.

The district attorney’s office and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the case Friday.

Erik Mendoza, Rodriguez’s grandson, told CNN last year that his grandfather had sustained a broken jaw, broken cheekbones, two broken ribs and bruises on his face, back and abdomen. He said Rodriguez traveled from Michoacán, Mexico, to visit family in California about twice a year and walked through the neighborhood every day.

Jones was originally charged with attempted murder in the case and faced up to 29 years in prison. In December, she pleaded no contest to elder abuse.

On Thursday evening, Rodriguez, speaking in Spanish, told reporters from KCAL9, a Los Angeles television station, that he was “good and happy, thanks to God.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.