BAYTOWN, Texas – A woman was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a judge after pleading guilty to robbing and killing a 65-year-old man in a wheelchair in Baytown, Texas, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced on Monday.
Alicia Keator, 40, and her boyfriend, Marcus Donnell Gilbert, both pleaded guilty to murdering John Henry Fernandez.
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“The elderly and disabled people in our community are extremely vulnerable to becoming victims of violence,” Ogg said. “This couple took advantage of this man’s kindness and deserves to spend decades in prison.”
Fernandez lived at an apartment complex, and he was known as a kind and grandfatherly type. He did not have family and required help taking care of himself.
Keator agreed to help Fernandez if she could have a place to live. She moved into Fernandez’s apartment more than a month before the killing.
Authorities said she would have her boyfriend visit regularly, and they planned and executed Fernandez’s murder on Christmas Day in 2017.
“After concerned neighbors alerted apartment management that Fernandez had not been heard from for several days, maintenance workers found his body locked inside his bedroom. Keator and Gilbert were arrested by the Baytown Police Department and charged with capital murder for suffocating Fernandez and taking his television, ATM card and cellphone,” the DA’s office said.
Fernandez was found on Jan. 2, 2018, with his hands and feet tied and mouth taped shut.
Gilbert pleaded guilty to the murder this year to receive a 60-year sentence. Keator pleaded guilty without a plea agreement.
The judge later discovered that Keator had provided significant evidence to officials without a promise of a more lenient sentence. Since she assisted authorities, she received less prison time.
Gilbert and Keator are required to serve half of their sentences before they become eligible for parole. Harris County Assistant District Attorney and Chief of Innovation Chris Handley handled the case with Nancy Ta, a chief prosecutor in the DA’s Trial Bureau Division.