A homeless man who attacked an elderly man in a grocery store in 2016 -- during a dispute over a shopping cart -- pleaded guilty Wednesday in King County court.
The victim, 87-year old Fred Nesbitt, fell to the floor, broke his hip and died a few weeks after.
The initial charge was for second-degree manslaughter, but Wednesday, 34-year-old Brandon
Graves-Benevides was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree assault instead.
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We talked with Nesbitt's daughter, Susan Aracri, shortly after the attack. "It's very tragic and it's very sad. It's not the way to end,” she said in February 2016. Her father was shopping in the produce section at the Crown Hill QFC when the incident occurred. “This is an old man shuffling to get his bits and pieces. He liked his independence,” she said. On Wednesday, a King County prosecutor read a statement Graves-Benevides wrote, detailing what happened that day. "We were in a verbal dispute at QFC, and I assaulted him by pushing and grabbing his shopping cart, and pushing him over and he broke his hip. Mr. Nesbitt is elderly and a vulnerable victim,” prosecutor Scott O’Toole read. Graves-Benevides plead guilty to second-degree assault -- a charge that usually carries a sentence of three to nine months behind bars. But the suspect agreed Wednesday to spend 27 months in prison for his crime. “So basically what he's done, he's pleaded to the highest possible sentence he could've gotten for the manslaughter charge,” O’Toole said. The prosecutor says he believes he understands why the suspect agreed to what's called, an "exceptional sentence." “I think he acknowledges what he did was wrong, and I think he seems to be remorseful for that," O'Toole said. "But I think it's the label of manslaughter in the second degree that he objected to because he did not intend that Mr. Nesbitt would die." Sentencing for Graves-Benevides will be at the King County courthouse on Sept. 29. Family members say they hope after the sentencing, it'll finally bring them closure. Cox Media Group
