Thursday, a judge ordered a Staunton woman to serve the maximum sentence in an elder abuse case that ended in a man's death.
Jeannette Hymes, 50, had already pleaded guilty to a charge of abuse-and-neglect of an incapacitated adult. Thursday evening, Hymes was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
She was the sole caregiver for the victim, 85-year-old Russell Beach. Soon after Beach died in May 2010, an autopsy showed he was emaciated, and had suffered multiple injuries.
Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Robertson said, "We bailed on the issue of whether she caused his death because we had some doubt that we could say she killed him. But we had no doubt that her abuse and neglect of this man had caused him great bodily harm."
The Staunton judge was not swayed by defense witnesses, friends of Hymes who saw no signs of abuse and said she treated Beach like family.
