The 75-year-old woman in the care of a 46-year-old Illinois live-in caretaker will probably die in prison because he beat her to death because he was angry at her for keeping her television level too high.
In response to Dmitri G. Rogatchev’s 2019 killing of Sandra Jackson, Tenth Circuit Court Judge John P. Vespa on Monday sentenced him to sixty years in a state penitentiary, according to officials.
Rogatchev was convicted guilty last month on one count of first-degree murder in connection with the demise of the elderly woman by a Peoria County jury.
“Rogatchev became frustrated with Sandra because she had the television on too loud,” according to the prosecutors. “While arguing over the noise, Rogatchev became enraged and hit and kicked Sandra, ultimately causing a fatal brain injury.”
A news release from the Peoria County State’s Attorney’s Office states that on December 3, 2019, at around 2:30 a.m., Peoria Police Department officers responded to a 911 call regarding an unconscious elderly woman, subsequently identified as Jackson, that originated from an apartment complex in the 500 block of NE Monroe.
First responders found Jackson inside the apartment when they got there and reported that she was “not alert.” Jackson was taken by emergency medical professionals to OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center for assessment and care.
When police spoke with Rogatchev, Jackson’s live-in caretaker, she revealed that, at 11 p.m. that night, Jackson had taken her prescription medicine, which includes muscle relaxants and hydrocodone, with a glass of wine before dozing off.
According to the Journal Star, he claimed that at around two in the morning, Jackson woke him up again and asked for more painkillers, but he refused. He said she fell to the ground as she was leaving, so he lifted her up, placed her in a chair, and dialed 911.
On the other hand, authorities reported that at approximately 6:19 a.m., they received a call from a hospital administrator who expressed their belief that Jackson had sustained “serious life-threatening injuries” as a result of elder abuse.
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On December 4, Rogatchev was arrested by the authorities and taken to the Peoria County Jail, where he was first charged with aggravated domestic assault. Jackson was declared deceased on December 4 when she passed away from her wounds.
Prosecutors said that the evidence refuted Rogatchev’s statements regarding what happened before he dialed 911. “There was not a drop of alcohol found in Sandra (Jackson’s) blood and that her brain injuries could not have happened from a fall,” the ER physician who attended to Jackson informed police.
According to the Journal Star, a later autopsy revealed that Jackson’s cause of death was “severe intracranial hemorrhages in her brain, due to blunt force trauma” and that her mode of death was homicide.
When the police spoke with Rogatchev again, he allegedly acknowledged that he became enraged and hit Jackson in the head, but he insisted that he was so angry that he could not recall the precise details.
According to the prosecutors’ office, Rogatchev must complete the whole 60-year sentence as stipulated by Illinois state law.
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