A preliminary hearing was postponed Thursday for a 50-year-old caretaker who allegedly struck his charge in the head with the elderly man's own walker.
Jalome Sukulu Balekaba, 50, is accused of elder abuse and assault with great bodily injury.
He faces four years in prison if convicted on the assault charge and up to nine more years if convicted on the charges of elder abuse with great bodily injury and elder abuse with great bodily injury of a person over 70.
He appeared for a preliminary hearing Thursday but it was reset to April 17 at 2 p.m.; the hearing -- intended to convince a judge that the evidence warrants a trial -- should take two hours, district attorney documents indicate.
Balekaba is being held in lieu of $200,000 bail.
According to San Mateo County District Attorney Steven Wagstaffe, the defendant on Dec. 19, 2011, allegedly got drunk and slammed a walker over the head of an 88-year-old man for whom he served as caretaker.
Police had been called to the home by the victim's nephew, who reported that the defendant sounded drunk over the phone.
Officers arrived to find the defendant asleep in his room and the victim sitting in the living room, bleeding profusely from a head wound, Wagstaffe reported.
The victim was taken to the hospital, where he went into a coma and had a stroke, dying 10 weeks later, according to the D.A.
