After agreeing to take care of an elderly man in a wheelchair, a 40-year-old woman killed him and stole his belongings. She will do 25 years in prison.

On Monday, October 30, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg declared that Alicia Keator and her boyfriend, Marcus Gilbert, better known as “Skunk,” had entered a guilty plea to murder about the demise of John Fernandez, 65.

Officers were called to The Providence at Baytown Apartments on January 2, 2018, just after 1:30 p.m., to investigate Fernandez, according to the Baytown Police Department. Police received a contact from a concerned friend who said that Fernandez had not been seen or heard from since Christmas 2017.

When authorities discovered Fernandez dead inside his apartment, they suspected foul play. Fernandez had his lips taped shut and his hands and feet shackled, according to the district attorney’s office. Authorities concluded that he had been smothered.

Fernandez was a “gentle, grandfatherly type,” as far as people in his apartment complex were concerned, according to the district attorney’s office. He had no family nearby, therefore he needed daily assistance with basic tasks.

More than a month before he passed away, Keator moved in with Fernandez on the understanding that she would support him in return for a place to live. “Instead of helping, she allowed her boyfriend to visit regularly, culminating in the planned robbery and killing of Fernandez,” the district attorney’s office stated.

After not hearing from Fernandez, worried neighbours alerted management, and maintenance personnel found his corpses inside a closed bedroom.

Keator and Gilbert were taken into custody by Baytown Police on charges of choking Fernandez and robbing him of his ATM card, TV, and phone. At first, they were accused of capital murder.

Gilbert already agreed to serve 60 years in prison by entering a guilty plea.

Keator entered a guilty plea without entering into a plea deal; as a result, a judge punished her during a punishment hearing. After some time, the judge was informed that Keator had “provided crucial proof against her co-defendant and had agreed to testify toward him, even without promise of compassion.”

Frank Aguilar, the district judge for Harris County, stated at the sentencing that Keator would have faced a far lengthier prison term had she not cooperated with the prosecution.

Gilbert and Keator will not be eligible for release until they have completed at least half of their sentences.

“In our community, the elderly and crippled have a heightened susceptibility to violence.,” stated Ogg in a statement. This pair should spent several decades in prison for abusing the goodwill of this man.”