TERRYTOWN, La. (WGNO) — Jefferson Parish prosecutors announced guilty pleas in connection with the death of a woman in September 2014. The case was featured in a couple of WGNO’s Wheel of Justice reports.
Prosecutors say Misty Eiermann and Bryan Schwartz pleaded guilty to varying manslaughter charges today, April 25, as well admitting guilt to other narcotics, obstruction, and firearms offenses.
They say the pair beat to death Eiermann’s mother, 56-year-old Mary Romano, when they went to the woman’s home to steal her morphine and Xanax. Prosecutors say Romano suffered at least 17 blows to her head.
The attack stunned neighbors in the 700 block of Terry Parkway. Friends and family gathered at the home after the discovery of Romano’s body to seek answers and comfort one another. At the scene, deputies said another one of Romano’s daughters found her body.
“She claimed she had spoken to her mother yesterday evening, late last night sometime, but it wasn’t until she came over here just around 2:44 that she discovered her body,” JPSO Col. John Fortunato told WGNO at the crime scene in 2014.
Initially, the pair was booked with murder. As part of the guilty pleas, Eiermann received a 40-year prison sentence on the manslaughter charge, and Schwartz received a 20-year sentence as a principal to manslaughter.
Schwartz has a previous burglary conviction in Kentucky. He also made the news in Jefferson Parish after wiping feces on his own face during a pretrial hearing in the Romano case. A judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation after which Schwartz was found to be competent to stand trial.