An East Los Angeles woman pleaded no contest Wednesday to killing her 82-year-old grandmother in their East Los Angeles home nearly three years ago.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Renee Korn immediately sentenced 28-year-old Rebecca Surratt to 15 years to life in state prison following her plea to second-degree murder for the May 6, 2016, slaying of Maria Yslas.
The two women — who lived at the home in the 300 block of South Woods Avenue with Surratt’s mother and young son — got into an argument in which Surratt fatally beat the octogenarian.
At a hearing last year in which Surratt was ordered to stand trial, her mother testified that Surratt’s son — who had been home at the time — told her that the two women had been “arguing and Becky hit Nana and she kicked and she strangled her.”
But when questioned further, Surratt’s mother said she couldn’t remember many of the details of that night, including whether she ever told police that her grandson had seen a fight.
The boy — who testified that he hid inside a cabinet — also provided conflicting testimony, saying at one point that he didn’t tell police what happened.
Surratt’s defense attorney questioned just how much he could see from his hiding place and how long he was there, prompting the boy to say that he was trying to “not look.”
When asked during cross-examination about his mother hitting his great-grandmother, the boy held up two fingers to indicate that she had hit her twice and then one finger for the number of times she kicked her.
Surratt was arrested by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies the day of the attack and has remained behind bars since then.