A Bartholomew Superior Court 1 jury found Kimberly Jo Fields, 51, Columbus, guilty on two counts of battery involving a disabled man who was under her care.
Fields faces up to 12 years in prison when she is sentenced at 11 a.m. Sept. 28 in Superior Court 1.
The jury was out about two hours Wednesday before returning guilty verdicts on charges of battery by means of a deadly weapon and battery against a disabled person, both felonies.
The victim was stroke patient Loren P. Jacobs, Jr., who died at age 66 in Indianapolis on June 26, 2015, three months after he was beaten in his Candlelight Village home.
Jacobs, a disabled truck driver, had invited Fields to stay with him rent-free in exchange for caregiving that included cooking and cleaning, prosecutors said.
On March 3, 2015, police were summoned to Jacobs’ Longshore Drive home on the battery report. Jacobs, who was paralyzed on his left side after a stroke suffered in 1997, told investigators Fields had beaten him repeatedly with a 5-foot wooden board.
For more information on this story, see Thursday’s Republic.
