DENVER — A caretaker was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to neglect in the death of a resident at a Grand Junction assisted living facility, Attorney General Phil Weiser announced Friday.
On June 14, 2021, 86-year-old Hazel Place, a resident at the Cappella Assisted Living and Memory Care facility, died after she was left outside alone in the heat for six hours.
An investigation by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Colorado Department of Law and the Grand Junction Police Department determined Letticia Martinez, 28, was responsible for Place's death, Weiser said in a press release.
Martinez plead guilty to one count of caretaker neglect, a class 1 misdemeanor, and to a deferred sentence of negligent homicide, a class 5 felony, according to the attorney general. She was sentenced to three years probation, 100 hours of community service and 30 days in jail, Weiser continued.
“This caretaker broke the trust of a vulnerable Coloradan in her care,” Weiser said. “Caregivers have a moral and legal responsibility to those under their supervision, and my office will continue holding accountable those complicit in such negligence.”
Jamie Johnston, 31, and Jenny Logan, 52, were also charged in connection to Place's death. Their cases are ongoing, Weiser said.