Nursing-Home Caregiver Guilty Of Elder Neglect

MARIETTA, GA — A Powder Springs man has been convicted of elder neglect in his duties caring for a 91-year-old man who died last year. About 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 15, 2017, Adam Bennett was found in his room at Sunrise Assisted Living Center, on Johnson Ferry Road, with a bruised lip. Bennett told a day-shift caregiver: “He punched me,” while motioning to his face, chest, and groin.

Bennett soon became unresponsive, and workers at the nursing home then called for an ambulance. He was rushed to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, where his injuries included facial bruising, multiple rib fractures, and a collapsed lung. He never regained consciousness and died on Aug. 18.

Evidence collected by police showed that Landon Terrel, now 35, was the only male working the overnight shift at Sunrise that night. Terrel denied hitting Bennett and insisted he saw no facial bruising when he last checked on Bennett just before his shift ended at 6 am. But he told investigators he caught Bennett as he fell out of bed the previous evening and Bennett had banged his chest into the bed. Terrel said he checked on Bennett hourly throughout the night and that Bennett repeatedly complained of pain. Terrel admitted he used “poor judgment” in repeatedly ignoring those complaints.

Cobb’s Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Christopher Gulledge, ruled Mr. Bennett’s death resulted from blunt force trauma as a result of assault.

On Wednesday, after a weeklong trial and about three days of deliberations, a Cobb jury convicted Terrel of elder neglect and found him not guilty of two counts of elder abuse and one count of felony murder based on abuse. The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the charge of felony murder based on neglect. Terrel faces up to 20 years in prison.