LA woman sentenced to 15 years for beating 92yo Mexican with brick

NBC News
Sat, 02 Mar 2019 19:35 UTC

© AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File

In this July 11, 2018, file photo, Rodolfo Rodriguez, 92, thanks well-wishers for their help, as he talks to the media gathered outside his home in Los Angeles.

A Los Angeles woman has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in the beating of a 92-year-old man that was captured on video and shared widely on social media.

Thirty-year-old Laquisha Jones was sentenced Thursday following her no contest plea to elder abuse in December.

Prosecutors say Jones severely beat Rodolfo Rodriguez in the face with a brick on July 4 as the man was taking a walk. They say Rodriguez did nothing to provoke the attack.

A witness recorded video of Rodriguez as he sat dazed, his face bloodied, after being beaten. The witness, Misbel Borjas, also took a photo of a woman with a brick in her hand.

Borjas says Jones yelled at Rodriguez: "Go back to your country."

The case wasn't prosecuted as a hate crime.

Comment: The last line was corrected as follows: "Prosecutors added hate crime allegations in an amended complaint, but they were not part of the plea agreement that ended the case."

From an article at the time of the assault, quoting the woman who took the video:

"When I tried to videotape her with my cell phone," Borjas said of the attacker, "she threw that same concrete block, tried to hit my car."