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Dec. 28, 2018 / 2:48 AM GMT
By Phil Helsel
A Los Angeles woman who had been charged with attempted murder what prosecutors said was an unprovoked beating of a 92-year-old man pleaded no contest to lesser charges Thursday.
Laquisha Jones, 30, pleaded no contest to one count of elder abuse, infliction of injury. She was accused of using a brick to attack the man in the community of Willowbrook on July 4, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Rodolfo Rodriguez, who is a native of Mexico but a legal U.S. resident, had gone out alone for his daily walk that day, according to his grandson Erik Mendozza, about an hour and a half before he was going to watch fireworks with his family.
He may have bumped into a small girl while walking, witness Misbel Borjas told NBC Los Angeles at the time. She said she saw a woman with the girl push Rodriguez and hit him with a brick. The district attorney’s office said the attack occurred “without provocation.”
Jones had been charged with attempted murder in the attack. The victim was severely injured, prosecutors said.
Jones is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 28 and faces up to 15 years in prison, the DA’s office said. Online court records do not list an attorney for her. Jones is being held in jail without bail, according to online jail records.
Borjas told the station that she heard the woman in the attack tell the man to “go back to your country.” The woman later told NBC News that she heard the attacker say, “Go back, go back.”
The sheriff’s department which investigated the case said the incident was not a hate crime.
In a no contest plea the defendant does not admit guilt. But Jones admitted to allegations of using a deadly and dangerous weapon, and admitted that she was convicted on 2017 of making criminal threats, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Rodriguez in July said he’s thankful that a passer-by took video of the aftermath of the attack and tried her best to help him, the Associated Press reported.