Woman Gets 15 Years in Prison for Brutal July 4 Attack on Grandfather

A stock photo of a judge's gavel. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A California woman who was charged in the attack of a 92-year-old grandfather was sentenced to 15 years in prison, said officials.

Laquisha Jones, 30, of Los Angeles, was charged with felony elder abuse in December.

Witnesses said Jones hit Rodolfo Rodriguez, the elderly man, with a brick, and he suffered a broken jaw and broken ribs on July 4, 2018.

The Los Angeles Superior Court announced her sentence on Feb. 28, reported Fox Los Angeles. In December, Jones pleaded no contest in the attack, The Associated Press reported.

In the attack, a witness, Misbel Borjas, claimed that Jones yelled “go back to your country.”

The case, however, was not prosecuted as a hate crime, AP reported.

Jones is slated to appear in court on April 11 for a restitution hearing.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in July that Jones allegedly beat Rodriguez with a brick. Witnesses at the time said that several men got involved in the attack on Rodriguez.

“Detectives began an extensive investigation into the assault. They obtained an arrest and search warrant for a suspect. Due to working every angle and lead in the case, it ultimately resulted in the arrest of Laquisha Jones without incident,” the office said in a prior report.

A witness told CNN that Jones allegedly told Rodriguez, “Go back to Mexico.”

Erik Mendoza, the grandson of the victim, also had written in a GoFundMe page that an “African-American lady and five other guys” assaulted his grandfather. “He is doing really bad, has a lot of bruises on his face and a broken cheekbone,” he said.

Rodriguez is a native of Mexico but a legal resident of the United States, and he was reportedly visiting his family. When he was attacked, he had gone out alone for his daily walk, his grandson told NBC News.

“Who would do this to anybody?” Mendoza asked. “A 92-year-old senior citizen, what can he do to anybody? There’s no harm that he meant.”

Other details about her case are not clear.

Violent Crime in the US

The number of murders and violent crimes committed in the United States dropped slightly in 2017, according to new crime statistics released in September 2018.

“Crime declined nationwide last year, consistent with our earlier analyses of 2017 data in the nation’s 30 largest cities,” Ames Grawert, senior counsel for the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York, told the Washington Times.

“That’s the good news. The bad news is that even while crime is falling, the number of Americans incarcerated remains near-record highs. Now is the time to address the problem.” The number of cases of manslaughter and murder dropped 0.7 percent in 2017 from the prior year, the report said.

Rapes rose by 3 percent and aggravated assault rose by 1 percent, but overall violent crimes dropped 0.2 percent, the report added.

In large California cities, crime was up in 2016, the last year data was collected.

“Data analysis by the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation found that of the 69 California cities listed in the report, 46 had increased in violent crime last year. Some cities saw increases of more than 50% in crime, including murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. In Los Angeles, violent crime rose 16.8% compared to 2015,” said the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, citing FBI data.

“Cities with the largest violent crime increases included Moreno Valley (+66.3%), Burbank (+50.7%), Fremont (+41.6%), El Cajon (+27.8%), Santa Maria (+26.1%), Rialto (+22.7%), Riverside (+22.5%), and Pasadena (+18.1%).”

It added: “The largest increases in murder were reported in San Jose (+127%), Santa Ana (+116.6%), San Bernardino (+100%), San Diego (+41.1%), and Berkeley (+35%). Rapes increased in many cities, including in Corona (+166%), Fremont (+73.6%), Fairfield (+70.5%), and Elk Grove (+68.4%).”