An Orange County jury Wednesday gave a punishment of 69 years in prison to a man it found guilty of beating his mother. His 69-year-old mother will be in a nursing home for the rest of her life because of brain damage she sustained.
49-year-old John Wesley Smith of Rose City was convicted of the charge of injury to an elderly person for the September 4 attack at his parents’ house, where he was living. Assistant District Attorney Krispen Walker asked the jury to assess the 69-year punishment for each of the mother’s birthdays. The jury also assessed a $10,000 fine.
Walker said the jury also found that Smith used his hands as a deadly weapon. That means he must serve 30 years in prison before being considered for parole.
Testimony showed that Smith and his mother were at the house on a Sunday evening as his father was attending church. He claimed self-defense, but had two different stories from what he told Orange County Sheriff’s deputies and what he testified in court.
The mother sustained permanent brain damage and had to have plastic surgery to repair her nostrils so she could breathe, Walker said.
The trial was held before 163rd District Judge Dennis Powell.
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