Web Posted: 04/29/2008 01:36 AM CDT

Elizabeth Allen
San Antonio Express News

A woman caught on surveillance tape repeatedly slapping and hitting her aging patient was sentenced Monday to five years in prison.

“It was pretty clear from the video and the verdict that you are absolutely guilty on both counts,” 226th District Judge Sid Harle told the woman, Alma Berlanga, 64.

A jury in March took two minutes to find Berlanga guilty of injury to an elderly person and injury to a disabled person.

Continuing to admonish Berlanga, Harle told the woman that because so many people must leave their children and their elderly relatives in the care of others, “You're probably a juror's worst nightmare.”

Family members of then-84-year-old Ofelia Escobar, who had suffered a stroke and was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease, had become suspicious of Berlanga, who cared for Escobar during the day.

Read the entire article HERE [1].