Man who beat elderly patient at Fountain Valley hospital gets 7 years in prison

March 24, 2017 11:16 AM PT

A former Fountain Valley hospital patient received a seven-year prison sentence Thursday for repeatedly punching a 91-year-old man with whom he shared a room, prosecutors said.

Ibrahim Yousef Battat, 39, of Laguna Niguel attacked the elderly man in June 2014 and tried to suffocate him at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

The man suffered a dislocated finger, major cuts to his head and hand and eye swelling, prosecutors said. Nurses and another patient restrained Battat until Fountain Valley police arrived.

The circumstances of why Battat attacked the man haven’t been made public.

Battat pleaded guilty to one felony count of inflicting injury on an elder adult, with a sentencing enhancement for causing great bodily injury on an elder, according to a news release. He also was ordered to pay restitution.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint

Bradley Zint

Bradley Zint left Times Community News in 2018. He was a general assignment reporter for the Daily Pilot, where he worked since 2010. At the Pilot, he also was a copy editor, classical music columnist and reporter covering Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. He previously worked in Hermosa Beach, Long Beach, Alaska and Massachusetts. He is a graduate of Cal State Long Beach, where he served as editor-in-chief of its campus newspaper, the Daily 49er.