SAN DIEGO -- A man accused of beating the 67-year-old manager of his Park West apartment complex on the head with a hammer must stand trial on elder abuse and assault charges, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Dale Reed Bacon, 41, faces nine years in prison if convicted, said Deputy District Attorney Harrison Kennedy.

After a morning preliminary hearing, Judge Desiree Bruce-Lyle found there was enough evidence for Bacon to stand trial Dec. 15 on the two felony charges, including allegations that the hammer-beating caused great bodily injury to the victim.

The defendant had lived in the apartment complex for about a year and sometimes helped the victim with maintenance work, Kennedy said.

On May 27, they were installing a refrigerator when the manager thought Bacon had been drinking and asked him to leave, the prosecutor said.

The enraged defendant punched the manager in the face, then picked up a claw hammer and hit him in the back of the head several times, Kennedy alleged.

The victim was hospitalized with several skull fractures, but the wounds were not life-threatening, the prosecutor said.

Kennedy said the defendant has a 1999 assault with a deadly weapon conviction in San Diego County that started out as an attempted murder case.