A 28-year-old former patient at Torrance State Hospital has been sentenced to serve up to four years in prison for assaulting other patients at the hospital last year.
Rebecca Elizabeth Gardner, who in her original arrest documents several years ago was listed as being from Blairsville, pleaded guilty yesterday to two counts of misdemeanor simple assault for punching two other Torrance patients, in March and in May of last year.
Gardner was found guilty but mentally ill on charges of aggravated assault and arson in 2008, with attempted homicide charges dropped. That was in Westmoreland County. In Armstrong County, she pleaded guilty to simple assault, with non-prosecution for aggravated assault, in 2011. And in another 2011 case, she pleaded guilty to two counts of simple assault, with non-prosecution for aggravated assault.
In the cases for which she was sentenced yesterday, Gardner reportedly punched the first woman because she didn’t like her and she wanted to go to jail rather than stay in Torrance. She repeatedly punched the other woman in May. Judge Christopher Feliciani imposed consecutive sentences of one-to-two years.
