MD Caretaker Gets Prison Time In Death Of Dementia Patient

BALTIMORE, MD — A former nursing assistant was sentenced to 25 years in prison for her role in the death of a 75-year-old patient at Autumn Lake Health Care Post Acute Care Center in Baltimore, according to state Attorney General Anthony Brown.

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge sentenced Obiageriaku Iheanacho, 36, to 25 years with all but seven years suspended, Brown announced in a release. Upon her release, Iheanacho will be on five years of supervised probation, during which she will be prohibited from caring for vulnerable adults.

Iheanacho previously pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and abuse of a vulnerable adult following the death of Ellsworth Johnson-Bey in September 2022.

“Mr. Johnson-Bey’s death was incredibly tragic,” Brown said in a statement. “Although the events leading up to Mr. Johnson-Bey’s death can never be undone, it is our hope that the defendant’s plea and sentencing in this case will bring some closure to those grieving.”

According to prosecutors, Iheanacho was a geriatric nursing assistant at Autumn Lake when she was captured on video pushing Johnson-Bey to the ground on May 15, 2022. Johnson-Bey, a dementia patient, was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a left hip fracture, prosecutors said.

Johnson-Bey was treated at the hospital and returned to Autumn Lake a few weeks later, prosecutors said. Although he tried undergoing physical therapy, Johnson-Bey never got out of bed again, according to prosecutors.

Authorities said Johnson-Bey eventually contracted pneumonia, developed blood clots in his lungs due to inactivity and was diagnosed with COVID-19. He died at a local hospital on Sept. 5, 2022.

Iheanacho was charged in January by Baltimore City police.