Elderly Burbank Man Gets 2 Year Prison Term for Attacking Wife With Chair Leg

71-year-old Joseph Robert Brancato was sentenced today to two years in prison for a July 5, 2011 attack on his wife Marie. Initially charged with murder, Brancato struck his wife in the head with a chair leg.

Authorities found Marie, 65, bleeding profusely from the back of her head at the couple's home.

However, the murder charge was reduced to assault once a coroner's report determined Marie Brancato's official cause of death was cirrhosis and not a blow to the head, reports City News Service.

Joseph Brancato, who pleaded no contest in December to the assault charge, was no stranger to area police, who, as records indicate, had been called to their home previously to investigate calls about arguments and violence. In 2010, Brancato was arrested for allegedly hitting his wife in the head.