A Jefferson Parish judge on Wednesday (Nov. 13) sentenced Patricia Tito to life in prison, after she pleaded guilty to murdering a Grand Isle man who went missing in 1984.
In closing out one of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office’s cold-case investigations, Tito, 60, pleaded guilty as charged to the second-degree murder of Lester Rome. A one-time companion of Tito’s, his skeletal remains were discovered in a north Louisiana well two years after he went missing.
Rome was 57 years old and the owner of a lounge on Grand Isle when he was last seen on Jan. 9, 1984. Tito, then a teenager who was Rome’s live-in girlfriend, continued operating the lounge in his absence. She continued to live in his home and drove his car until his brother arrived on the island and evicted her.
Tito had told residents that she was the last person to see Rome, and that she had driven him to the airport for a trip. Tito had told another woman that she had acquired ownership of Rome’s business, that he had given the lounge to her and left the state.
The Sheriff’s Office considered her a suspect in his disappearance, but the investigation was suspended because Rome’s body could not be found.
His remains were found in a well on farmland just outside Many, La., in 1986 but were not identified until 2021. The Sabine Parish Sheriff’s Office investigation focused on Tito. By then, she was serving a 40-year prison sentence for her 2007 guilty plea to manslaughter – she admitted killing a Shreveport woman, whom she shot on Aug. 31, 2003.
The Sheriff’s Office joined in the Sabine Parish investigation in 2021. Tito had told a Sabine Parish detective she was aware that Rome was murdered but that she was merely a witness to it. She blamed another man for killing Rome, over what she said was a drug debt. She further said that the murder occurred in Jefferson Parish.
In 2022, Tito then was returned to Jefferson Parish to be questioned in Rome’s homicide. She eventually alleged that she and Rome were entering into a business relationship, and that he made sexual advances toward her. The business arrangement collapsed, and Rome was killed shortly after, she told a detective.
Tito was indicted by a Jefferson Parish grand jury with the second-degree murder of Rome in December 2023.
On Wednesday, Tito pleaded guilty as charged to second-degree murder over the objection of her court-appointed attorney. She pleaded guilty under North Carolina v Alford, wherein she stated that the guilty plea was in her best interest.
Judge Danyelle Taylor of the 24th Judicial District Court accepted Tito’s guilty plea. Tito waived delays, and Judge Taylor sentenced her to the mandatory life in prison without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.
Assistant District Attorneys David Wolff and Lindsay Truhe prosecuted the case.