Sam Ato Timaloa, a paroled sex offender who also served time for attempted murder, had dementia and an acute intolerance of noise -- especially from roommates at Sunrise Post Acute, a nursing home in Banning, California. Over 4 months in 2025, a state investigative report found, Sunrise switched Timaloa's room eight times, the last into one occupied by Attilio Cecchetto, 92, a retired tile installer whose dementia led him to frequently moan, mumble, and yell.
Overnight, a nurse aide walked into their room and saw blood splattered on the floor, walls, and ceiling, according to a grand jury transcript. Cecchetto's face "looked twisted and smashed," the aide testified. A Banning city police officer testified that Timaloa, 77, told him that he had punched Cecchetto twice.
"He just kept saying that Attilio was being too loud: 'He talks too much,'" the officer said.
Cecchetto died 2 days later from blunt force facial trauma.
"You get placed in a facility like this to be taken care of, not to be murdered," one of his sons, Gino Cecchetto, said in an interview. "This was completely preventable at many different points."
