Category: What’s New

‘I’m just glad I’m working,’ Miss Lou tells DA Paul Connick of 70-year work history

Miss Lou and PDC

Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul D. Connick Jr. thanked Rosemary “Miss Lou” Urso for her 70 years of service on Thursday. (JPDA photo) 

 

As she has done for almost every grand jury proceeding in recent memory, Rosemary “Miss Lou” Urso spent the morning on Thursday (May 12) assisting Jefferson Parish prosecutors as they presented cases to the panel at the District Attorney’s Office building in Gretna.

But on this morning, she was called away from her desk on the first floor to meet with Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul D. Connick, Jr., who awaited her in his fifth floor office.

Miss Lou, as she’s widely called, has worked with the Jefferson Parish judicial system for 70 years, likely longer than anyone in the local government. Thirty of those years were spent at the district attorney’s office.

Connick, the parish’s top prosecutors for two decades, wanted to express his appreciation.

“Thanks for being with us,” Connick told her. “Thanks for what you do.”

“We’re fortunate to have you,” First Assistant District Attorney Steve Wimberly added. “We really are.”

For Miss Lou, the words were among the accolades she’s received during the past week in recognizing the seven decades she’s given at the parish courthouse in Gretna.

“It’s just been my whole life,” she told Connick and Wimberly of her work.

At age 86, Miss Lou says she has no plans to retire. “Not as long as the Lord lets me work,” she said after meeting with the top prosecutors. “I’ll work.”

She was a 16-year-old senior at Gretna High School when in 1946 she was offered a job as a secretary under then-District Attorney John Fleury. At the time, the 24th Judicial District, based at what today is the Gretna City Hall, encompassed Jefferson, St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes.

Fleury retired in 1948, and Miss Lou recalled how her new boss, District Attorney Frank Langridge, and then-Judge L. Robert Rivarde, had to drive out to “the country” to hold court in the rural parishes. The state redrew the judicial district lines in 1954, when the 24th Judicial District was confined to Jefferson Parish’s boundaries.

Miss Lou remained Langridge’s secretary from 1948 to 1972, when he left office, and remained at the District Attorney’s Office under John Mamoulides before retiring in 1976 after three decades.

Her retirement was short lived. In October 1976, she started working for Jefferson Parish Clerk of Court William “Bill” Justice. She never left. Although she works for Clerk of Court Jon Gegenheimer today, Miss Lou continues assisting prosecutors with grand jury work on most Thursdays.

That’s what she was doing on May 5, when employees at the District Attorney’s Office presented her with a cake and flowers. The following night, she attended a District Attorney’s Office reunion in Gretna, unaware beforehand that the social event was also held in her honor.

She was presented with a framed proclamation from the Jefferson Parish Council, naming it Rosemary Urso Day. “It’s beautiful,” she said.

Gegenheimer also presented her with a certificate of appreciation, as Mamoulides, retired appellate Judge Marion Edwards – a former first assistant district attorney – and 24th Judicial District Commissioner Paul Schneider looked on.

Back at her desk outside the grand jury meeting room after meeting with Connick and Wimberly, Miss Lou collated the morning’s returns and expressed wonderment over the attention she’s been receiving.

“I think that there are other people that deserve it much more than I do,” she said. “All I did was work. I’m just glad I’m working.”

 

Rosemary “Miss Lou” Urso began working at the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office as a secretary in 1946 and continued working for the office until a short-lived retirement in 1972. That year she began working for the Jefferson Parish Clerk of Court, although she has continued assisting the district attorney’s office. Her career has spanned four district attorneys, starting with John Fleury and continuing with Frank Langridge, John Mamoulides and Paul D. Connick Jr. To mark her 70th year of employment, coworkers presented her with a cake, she met with District Attorney Connick and was presented a certificate of appreciation by Clerk of Court Jon Gegenheimer.

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Gretna man pleads guilty, gets 20 years for killing Carnival float driver while driving drunk

A Gretna man was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday (May 10) after pleading guilty to killing a Carnival float tractor driver in Marrero while driving drunk.

Michael Burrle, 56, pleaded guilty as charged to vehicular homicide and reckless operation of a motor vehicle in connection with the Feb. 7, 2015, collision at Lapalco Boulevard and Paxton Street.

Burrle admitted he caused the death of Don Dauzat, 53, of Westwego, who was driving the tractor he used to pull a float in a Metairie parade the night before.

At the time of the collision, Burrle’s blood-alcohol content was .12 percent, which is 50 percent above the legal limit to drive.

He was speeding westward on Lapalco just before 3 a.m., in a 2001 Ford Explorer, when he ran the red light at Paxton, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Dauzat, meanwhile, was in a convoy of tractors and had just turned onto Lapalco from Paxton when the 2012 John Deere he was driving was struck by Burrle’s sports-utility vehicle. The impact sent the tractor rolling about 70 feet, and Dauzat was ejected.

Dauzat died from his injuries at a hospital later that day. Burrle was arrested at the scene.

Dauzat was among the tractor drivers who pulled floats in the Krewe of Excalibur parade the night before and had just dropped off the floats at a den in Marrero. The drivers, including Dauzat, were driving the tractors in a convoy to a staging area for another parade scheduled for the following night when Burrle caused the fatal collision.

In impact testimony given during the plea hearing Tuesday, Dauzat’s daughter Courtney Dauzat called her father “my protector, comforter, friend and my hero.” She recounted how her father taught her to ride a bike, to “properly cast a fishing pole,” to check the air in her tires and many other things.

“My father taught me a lot about how to have faith in God and how to love others,” she testified. “That night I lost the man who was supposed to walk me down the aisle on my wedding day, a day that every daughter looks forward to. I lost the man I felt safest with.

“My father cared for people in such an extraordinary way,” she said. “He always had a glow about him, always smiling, laughing and enjoying his life. I had always looked up to my father and hoped that one day my husband might be half the man my father was.”

Dauzat’s goddaughter, Lindsey Seibert, was among the family and friends who wrote letters to the court. A prosecutor read hers aloud. “Don did what he could to be a protector, a supporter, a husband, a friend, a son, a brother, a dedicated safety coordinator at Monsanto,” Seibert wrote. “He did a damn good job at all of those things and many more.

“We need more people in the world like Don, and unfortunately, we lost one too early that night. His kindness and happiness will live on in our hearts forever, but sometimes it just doesn’t feel like it’s enough,” Seibert wrote.

In accepting the negotiated pleas, Judge Ray Steib of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Burrle to 20 years in prison for the vehicular homicide and 90 days for the reckless operation offense. Steib additionally ordered Burrle to pay a $2,000 fine.

Assistant District Attorney Angad Ghai prosecuted the case.

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Harvey man who stabbed rival in turf fight over mom’s yard gets 12 years in prison

A Harvey man who was convicted last month of stabbing another man after being warned to keep off his mother’s lawn was sentenced Monday (May 9) to 12 years in prison as a three-time felon.

Jessie Havies, 34, was convicted of aggravated battery on April 27, for the Aug. 14, 2014 stabbing in the 2600 block of Max Drive in Harvey. According to testimony presented to the six-member jury, the victim and his brother told Havies to stop walking across their mother’s lawn, leading to an argument that escalated to violence.

Using a knife with a four-inch blade, Havies stabbed one of the men, lacerating his liver and leading to more than a week of hospitalization, according to testimony. Havies said he was defending himself, an assertion the jury rejected.

After denying a defense request for a new trial on Monday, Judge Henry Sullivan of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Havies to 10 years in prison, the maximum for aggravated battery. He declined to reconsider his decision, saying he “believes the sentence is appropriate considering the testimony in this matter.”

Prosecutors then filed a multiple bill, charging Havies as a three-time felon under the state’s habitual offender law. The prior convictions cited in the bill were of possession of cocaine and attempted possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Havies pleaded guilty to the bill, admitting he was, in fact, the same person who had those prior convictions. In turn, Sullivan increased the 10-year sentence to 12 years.

Assistant District Attorneys Lindsay Truhe and Thomas Sanderson prosecuted the case.

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Judge orders lifetime of monitoring for ‘dangerous child predator’

A Jefferson Parish judge on Friday (May 6) determined that a former Metairie resident with four convictions of possession of child pornography, who authored letters expressing his desire to sexually abuse children, is a dangerous child predator and must submit to lifelong restrictions once he’s released from prison.

Jonathan Ruiz, 34, must wear a GPS monitor on his ankle, register as a sex offender and remain under state supervision for the rest of his life, 24th Judicial District Court Judge Nancy Miller ruled after hearing testimony and reviewing a Sex Offender Assessment Panel packet of information about the man that a prosecutor presented in court.

“The court does find the content of that package extremely disturbing and clearly indicates, in this court’s mind, that Mr. Ruiz will upon release from (the Department of Corrections) in some fashion offend again,” Judge Miller said.

She based the decision on evidence presented by the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office through a Sex Offender Assessment Panel. Called SOAP, the Louisiana Legislature in 2009 created the three-person panels under the state Department of Corrections and Public Safety, to determine whether inmates convicted of certain sex offenses are dangerous child predators or sexually violent predators.

Prosecutors present the panels’ findings, testimony and other evidence to judges to determine whether restrictions should be instituted before the inmates are released from prison and into the population.

Dr. Matthew Gamble, a psychiatrist appointed to evaluate Ruiz as part of the SOAP process, testified he found the letters Ruiz wrote in prison containing graphic sexual descriptions involving young children, to be “extremely worrisome.” He said Ruiz is one of only two out of hundreds of inmates he’s assessed who need the tightest lifetime restrictions.

While he was confined to the Rayburn Correctional Center in Angie from 2006 through last year, Ruiz wrote letters asserting he had sexually abused children, whom he called “toys,” and desired to do so again when released from prison, according to evidence presented in court.

Corrections officers began screening his non-legal letters after finding pictures Ruiz drew of children in sexual poses, some of which he hid in his legal documents, according to testimony.

He tore photographs of children’s faces from magazines and used them with the bodies in his drawings, leading corrections officers to ban him from magazines that contained photos of children, according to testimony. His letters also included detailed drawings of a compound that he intended to build in a remote location where he could abuse children secretly, according to the evidence.

“Sexual impulse control has continued to be a problem, even in the penitentiary setting,” Gamble testified. He said he has “a high degree of concern” that Ruiz would re-offend after he’s released from prison.

Through an attorney, Ruiz denied the accusations. The letters were written as “fiction,” and there was no evidence that Ruiz has ever sexually abused a human being, his attorney said.

In addition to theft-related offenses, Ruiz was convicted of three counts of possession of child pornography in Jefferson Parish and one conviction attempted possession of child pornography in Livingston Parish.

Ruiz’s most recent conviction in Jefferson Parish was 2006, when he received a nine-year prison sentence for three counts of possession of child pornography. At the time, Ruiz lived in the 200 block of Radiance Street in Metairie, where his parole agents and Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies performing a residence check found sexually explicit photographs of children in addition to stolen property, according to the arrest report.

After he was released from prison for those convictions, he moved to New Orleans and failed to register as a sex offender, leading to his April 13 guilty plea in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and when he’s released, he’ll have to comply with the conditions that Judge Miller set on Friday in deciding he is a dangerous child predator.

In addition to a lifetime of GPS monitoring and sex offender registration, Ruiz must regularly report to parole agents and submit to random, unannounced residential inspections. All of his electronic communications and internet use will be monitored as well.

Judge Miller found that the state, which carries the burden of proof in SOAP proceedings, proved “by clear and convincing evidence” that Ruiz is a child sexual predator. She found that child pornography is a sexual offense against children, and that Ruiz has a mental abnormality, which is another element of the SOAP law.

Assistant District Attorney Matt Clauss prosecuted the matter.

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Grand Isle fisherman who crashed boat into shrimp dock sentenced to 20 years in prison for DUI

A Grand Isle commercial fisherman with six actual convictions of driving under the influence was sentenced on Friday (May 6) to 20 years in prison for his most recent DUI conviction.

Rockey Burnham, 44, was convicted as charged of his second fourth-offense DUI on April 20. Fourth-offense DUI is the most serious offense available to prosecutors under Louisiana law. Burnham was arrested on April 28, 2015, after he crashed a boat he was piloting into moored vessels and the shrimp dock owned by Dean Blanchard Seafood.

The U.S. Coast Guard investigated the boat wreck, while the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries handled the DUI investigation. The state agents concluded that Burnham did poorly on the field sobriety test, leading to blood work that yielded the presence of diazepam, nordiazepam and methamphetamine, according to evidence presented at the trial.

Fourth-offense DUI conviction carries a sentence of 10 years to 30 years in prison. After denying defense requests to toss out the conviction and to order a new trial, Judge Conn Regan of the 24th Judicial District Court opted for the 20-year sentence, to be served without the benefit of parole, probation or suspended sentence.

Judge Regan also told Burnham that he would recommend access to substance abuse programs in prison, “so that when you get out you don’t find yourself in the same situation you’re in today.”

Because he was on probation at the time of his arrest in this last case, Burnham faces an additional seven years if his probation is revoked. Five of those years are tied to a previous DUI conviction, while two are from a narcotics possession conviction. If his probation is revoked, Burnham would face the seven-year sentence in addition to the 20 years he received on Friday.

Burnham denied the latest charges. He alleged the boat he was maneuvering suffered from mechanical problems and that Wildlife and Fisheries agents did little to no investigating. The Jefferson Parish jury deliberated about 40 minutes in finding him guilty as charged.

His last conviction before this year’s was in 2011, for an arrest a year earlier for driving a trawler without authorization while under the influence of alcohol and crystal methamphetamine, crashing it into a dock. He pleaded guilty to DUI, unauthorized use of a movable and simple criminal damage to property.

As part of the plea arrangement in that case, a judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison but suspended five of those years in ordering five years of probation. Burnham also was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.

He also was sentenced to two years in prison in 2011, for two narcotics-related offenses. He separately has DUI convictions in East Baton Rouge and Lafourche parishes, in addition to Jefferson Parish convictions.

Assistant District Attorneys Lynn Schiffman and Marko Marjanovic prosecuted the case.

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Kenner man’s probation revoked, gets 22-year sentence in gunplay case

A Kenner man who was convicted last week of four felonies, including shooting at his lifelong friend on a city street, was sentenced on Monday (May 2) to 22 years in prison.

Otis D. Washington, 26, also was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine in connection with his April 26 convictions of aggravated criminal damage to property, aggravated assault and two counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

After a lifelong friend questioned him about a pistol he possessed, Washington began shooting at the victim as he left a store in the 1000 block of 3rd Street in Kenner on April 28, 2015, according to trial testimony. As the victim drove away, bullets shattered a back door window, punched through a door and struck the back of the front passenger’s seat where a pregnant woman sat.

The following day, the victim saw Washington at Jefferson Highway and Wilker Neal Avenue in River Ridge. Washington pointed the same pistol at the man, leading to the aggravated assault charge. Washington was barred from possessing firearms because of a 2010 simple robbery conviction, and yet did so on back-to-back days, leading to the two gun possession charges.

The victim contacted the Kenner Police Department only after Washington pointed the gun at him. Following the shooting, he said he hoped his mother and Washington’s mother would resolve the matter, he testified.

After denying a defense request for a new trial, Judge Michael Mentz of the 24th Judicial District Court sentenced Washington to 20 years for each of the two firearm counts, 10 years for the aggravated assault and 15 years for the criminal damage counts. He ran the sentences concurrently, for a total of 20 years.

At the time of his arrest in the case, Washington was serving two years of probation because of his conviction of unauthorized use of property valued at more than $500. He pleaded guilty to that charge less than three months before his arrest in the shooting case.

Kenner police arrested him for the earlier offense in October 2013, after observing him drive through a private parking lot on Williams Boulevard to avoid a traffic signal, while watching a pornographic movie on a DVD player, according to the arrest report.

Police learned that the DVD player and other items in Washington’s car had been stolen in a residential burglary in Kenner earlier that day. Mentz, who presided over that case, too, suspended a two-year prison sentence and gave Washington two years of probation.

But with last week’s conviction, Judge Mentz on Monday revoked the probation and ordered Washington to serve the original two-year prison sentence. That sentence was run consecutively with the new 20-year sentence, for a total of 22 years.

Prosecutors on Monday also filed a multiple bill under Louisiana’s habitual offender law, charging Washington as a third felony offender. Apart from two misdemeanor convictions, Washington’s background includes felony convictions of simple robbery, simple burglary and unauthorized use of movable property.

Sentencing range for the bill is 10 years to 30 years in prison. Judge Mentz is scheduled to consider the bill on May 19.

Assistant District Attorneys Angel Varnado and Douglas Rushton prosecuted the case.

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Confrontation over Harvey mother’s lawn leads to stabbing and a conviction

A Harvey man faces up to 10 years in prison for stabbing another man who was severely injured in the attack after he told the suspect to stop walking through his mother’s yard.

Jessie Havies, 34, was convicted as charged of aggravated battery on Wednesday (April 27), for the Aug. 14, 2014 stabbing in the 2600 block of Max Drive. The six-member jury deliberated more than an hour before returning with the verdict.

The victim told Havies to stop walking through his mother’s yard. Words were exchanged, and Havies stabbed the man using a knife with a four-inch blade. The victim suffered a lacerated liver that required surgery and more than a week of hospitalization, according to trial testimony.

Havies claimed self-defense, asserting that the victim, accompanied by his brother and a third person, did more than ask him to stop walking through his mother’s yard.

The prosecutors argued that Havies felt he was disrespected about the request to keep out of the yard, and that the force he used was unreasonable and unnecessary.

Judge Henry Sullivan of the 24th Judicial District Court set sentencing for Thursday (May 4).

Assistant District Attorneys Lindsay Truhe and Thomas Sanderson prosecuted the case.

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Harvey man gets 25-year prison sentence in heroin case

A Harvey man arrested last year after deputies found more than 50 grams of heroin hidden in a coffee maker in his girlfriend’s home pleaded guilty on Wednesday (April 27) and accepted a 25-year prison sentence.

As his trial was set to begin, Megile Carter, 36, offered to plead guilty as charged to possession with intent to distribute heroin, possession of marijuana and possession of marijuana and heroin in the presence of children.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office narcotics agents arrested Carter on March 3, 2015, after finding 50.7 grams of heroin while serving a search warrant at his girlfriend’s home in the 6000 block of 6th Street.

The agents found 37 baggies of heroin, packaged for street-level distribution, and two lumps of the narcotic stuffed in a sock that was hidden in a coffee maker’s filter compartment.

The heroin was within reach of the six young children who lived in the home, the detectives said. The agents also found a bag of marijuana and a marijuana cigarette in a bedroom. Carter admitted the narcotics were his, according to the arrest affidavit.

With a pool of prospective jurors waiting in an adjacent courtroom to begin jury selection, Judge June Darensburg of the 24th Judicial District Court accepted Carter’s guilty plea and sentenced him to 25 years.

Carter received two six-month sentences for the marijuana and possession of drugs in the presence of children offenses. Judge Darensburg ran the sentences concurrently.

Carter’s convictions include second-degree battery, conspiracy to distribute 200-400 grams of cocaine and first- and second-offense marijuana possession, court records show.

Assistant District Attorneys Josh Vanderhooft and Rachel Africk prosecuted the case.

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Kenner shooter convicted of criminal damage, assault and firearms offenses

A Kenner man on probation for a 2013 felony was convicted of four more charges on Tuesday (April 26), for shooting at a lifelong friend outside a Kenner store last year, and of pointing the same pistol at the victim a day later.

A Jefferson Parish jury deliberated about an hour in convicting Otis D. Washington, 26, of 400 Warren St., as charged of aggravated assault, aggravated criminal damage to property and two counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

The victim, a 36-year-old man, testified that he left a store in the 1000 block of 3rd Street on April 28, 2015, when he saw Washington with a pistol and asked about it. Washington, whom the victim had known since he was a baby, responded, “I got you slippin’,” according to the Kenner Police Department.

Fearing Washington was going to shoot him, the victim and his pregnant female companion tried to flee in the four-door 1997 Buick Le Sabre the victim purchased days earlier. “The first shot hit the door, and the second shot hit the window,” the victim testified Tuesday. “And he kept on shooting … I don’t know why he did what he did, because I never did him that.”

No one was injured, although one bullet struck the front passenger seat where the woman sat, according to evidence presented to the jury. That shooting is the basis for the aggravated criminal damage charge.

The victim didn’t call police, opting to have his mother speak with Washington’s mother to resolve the dispute. But the following day, he said he was on Jefferson Highway at Wilker Neal Avenue in River Ridge when Washington pointed the same pistol at him from a passing vehicle. That encounter is the basis of the criminal damage charge and led the victim to call police, the victim said.

Washington was arrested days later at his girlfriend’s apartment in Metairie, with help from the U.S. Marshals Service’s Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force. Jurors heard recordings of telephone calls he made the following day from the parish jail, in which he said he paid for the victim’s window and referred to the victim as “a rat.”

He said nothing about an alibi, but during trial his attorney presented an alibi defense in arguing he was at his job as a dishwasher in a Metairie restaurant at the times when the victim said the crimes happened.

Jurors were shown photos of Washington holding a pistol that were posted on his Facebook page under the name Dwayne Carter, which is New Orleans-born rapper Lil’ Wayne’s real name. The victim testified the pistol in the photographs is the same one Washington used in the shooting and assault.

Washington was barred from possessing firearms because of a 2010 felony conviction of simple robbery, for which he received a 3-year sentence. That conviction stemmed from his snatching a woman’s purse in a Williams Boulevard pharmacy in 2008.

He now faces 10 to 20 years in prison for each of the firearm possession counts, up to 10 years for aggravated assault and from one year to 15 years for aggravated criminal damage to property. Judge Michael Mentz of the 24th Judicial District Court set the sentencing for Monday (May 2).

Less than three months before he was arrested in the shooting, Washington pleaded guilty in Judge Mentz’s court to unauthorized use of property valued at more than $500, for items police found in his possession that had been stolen in a residential burglary in Kenner in 2013.

Judge Mentz suspended a two-year prison sentence and gave Washington two years of probation. Because of Tuesday’s conviction, Mentz on Monday also will consider whether to revoke the probation, meaning Washington’s two-year prison sentence could be reinstated.

Assistant District Attorneys Angel Varnado and Douglas Rushton prosecuted the case.

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Terrytown woman’s beating death brings manslaughter guilty pleas

A woman and her former boyfriend pleaded guilty on Monday (April 25), to beating her mother to death in her Terrytown home while stealing her drugs, and admitting guilt to narcotics, obstruction and firearms offenses.

Misty Eiermann, 36, and Bryan Schwartz, 28, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with the Sept. 9, 2014, death of Mary Romano, 56. Romano was struck in the head with a blunt object at least 17 times, in her home in the 700 block of Terry Parkway, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Eiermann, who admitted she killed her mother, was sentenced to the maximum 40-year sentence for manslaughter. Schwartz received a 20-year sentence as a principal to manslaughter.

In pleading guilty, Eiermann testified that she and Schwartz had been drinking and using drugs that night when they decided to rob her mother of her morphine and Xanax. She asserted Schwartz held a gun to Romano’s head and pointed it at her, too.

“He said, ‘You kill her or I will.’ So I did,” Eiermann testified, reiterating one of the four contradictive statements she made following her arrest.

When he entered his guilty plea minutes later, Schwartz said he helped Eiermann.

After the homicide, the couple fled in Romano’s vehicle, which they later gave to a homeless woman who at the time lived under the South Claiborne Avenue overpass in New Orleans, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The couple was charged with second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence in prison upon conviction. With Romano’s family members in the courtroom, Judge Henry Sullivan of the 24th Judicial District Court accepted the negotiated plea to manslaughter and handed down the sentences.

Eiermann and Schwartz also pleaded guilty as charged to obstruction of justice, for discarding the clothing they wore during the homicide, Romano’s vehicle and the blunt instrument used in the homicide. Sullivan sentenced each of them to 20 years in prison for those offenses.

Schwartz also pleaded guilty to being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, because of a 9 mm pistol deputies found in the South Niagra Circle apartment that he and Eiermann shared. He was barred from possessing firearms because of a 2008 burglary conviction in Kentucky. He received a 20-year sentence for that crime.

Eierman pleaded guilty to illegally supplying a felon with a firearm, for providing that pistol to Schwartz, knowing he was barred from possessing firearms. She received a five-year sentence for that charge.

Each also pleaded guilty as charged charged with possession of morphine, possession of Zoloft and possession of Alprazolam. Additionally, Eiermann was charged with a second count of possession of morphine. They received five-year sentences for each of those counts.

Judge Sullivan ran their sentences concurrently.

Schwartz also pleaded guilty to being a double offender on the obstruction charge, under Louisiana’s habitual offender law, for his 2008 burglary conviction in Kentucky. His sentence as a double offender was 20 years, run currently.

During a pretrial hearing on March 12, 2015, Schwartz wiped feces on his face in the courtroom, leading the judge to order to a sanity evaluation to determine whether he was fit to stand trial. Doctors later concluded Schwartz was mentally sound to stand trial.

Assistant District Attorney Kellie Rish prosecuted the cases.

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