Woman sentenced to 15 years for attacking elderly man with a brick in California
Laquisha Jones, 30, was accused of beating the man with a brick and telling him to “go back to your country,” the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.
Jones was sentenced Thursday after pleading no contest to an elder abuse charge, as part of a plea agreement in December. She had previously been charged with attempted murder and elder abuse, including a “hate crime allegation,” a spokesman for the district attorney’s office said Friday. The plea agreement did not include the hate crime component, the spokesman said.
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 south of downtown Los Angeles, while taking a walk July 4.
He told CNN last year that he had 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.
Prosecutors said Jones attacked Rodriguez “without provocation,” and that she acknowledged using a brick to injure the man.
Rodriguez suffered a broken jaw, broken cheekbones, two broken ribs and bruises on his face, back and abdomen, his grandson Erik Mendoza, told CNN last year. He said Rodriguez traveled from Michoacán, Mexico, to visit family in California about twice a year and walked through the neighborhood every day.
A witness, Misbel Borjas, posted a video of the aftermath and told CNN then that she had heard a female attacker saying, “Go back to your country. Go back to Mexico.” In the video, Rodriguez can be seen sitting on the ground next to a red-stained sidewalk, his face covered in blood.
Jones was being held in a county jail, records show. A lawyer representing her did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.