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A.J.'s Story - Newspaper Articles

The following links take you to various articles in AJ's story as it appeared in the South Florida media.

PLEASE DO NOT COPY THE INFORMATION ON THIS SITE BEFORE ASKING.

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In Loving Memory Of Andrew James "A.J." Schwarz April 24,1983 - May 2,1993 "Beautiful Child who has found love from the angels...RIP..."
This page contains articles from the Palm Beach Post and The Sun-Sentinel from the year 1995.

If you are interested in reading the FULL DETAILS of this case aside from what is posted here, please purchase "No One Can Hurt Him Anymore" by Carol J.Rothgeb and Scott H. Cupp. Mr. Cupp thinks it's the book that nobody will read...please show your support and show him that you care about AJ, too by ordering his book by clicking on the cover image below.

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Schwarz On Trial Again -- Judge Will Decide Murder Charges (3/20/95)
Prosecutor: AJ's Stepmother Took Discipline to Deadly Level (3/21/95)
Local (3/21/95)
Schwarz Trial a Mystery Already (3/21/95)
In Court (3/22/95)
Schwarz Jurors Told Of Cry in The Night (3/23/95)
Tearful Neighbor Testifies Schwarz Said She Was Going to Kill Stepson (3/24/95)
Neighbor: Schwarz 'Told Me She Was Going to Kill' AJ (3/24/95)
Attorney Asks Judge to Order Acquittal of AJ's Stepmom (3/25/95)
Schwarz Acquitted of Abuse Charge (3/28/95)
Schwarz Acquitted of Abusing Girl (3/28/95)

SCHWARZ ON TRIAL AGAIN
JUDGE WILL DECIDE MURDER CHARGES
Sun-Sentinel
March 20, 1995
MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer

A jury last year found that Jessica Schwarz was a monstrous stepmother who emotionally and physically abused her 10-year-old stepson, Andrew "A.J."Schwarz.
Today, a judge will begin hearing evidence that prosecutors hope will prove that Jessica Schwarz is also the boy's killer.
Schwarz is charged with second-degree murder in the death of A.J., whose nude, bruised body was pulled from an above-ground pool at the family's Lantana-area home on May 2, 1993.
The former truck driver is the first of several South Florida parents or guardians charged in recent child killings to go on trial.
But unlike the others facing child killing charges, a jury will not sit in judgment of Jessica Schwarz.
Her defense attorney, Rendell Brown, has asked that she be tried by a judge, a procedure more commonly known as a bench trial.
Donald Jones, a professor of constitutional law and criminal procedure at the University of Miami, said defense attorneys at times request bench trials when the crimes their clients are accused of committing may inflame the emotions of jurors.
"The general theory is the jury is an emotional engine" that mirrors the "values of the community," Jones said.
Some crimes, such as child abuse, carry stigmas that defense attorneys think can cloud a jury's objectivity by "arousing disgust and anger."The result, Jones said, can be a conviction based on emotion rather than evidence.
One advantage for the defense in bench trials is that most judges are less likely to be affected by emotional issues, concentrating mainly on the evidence and facts of the case, Jones said.
There are downfalls, however, for a defense attorney who selects a bench trial, Jones said.
"Judges tend to be somewhat sympathetic to the prosecution," he said.
For defense attorney Brown, the request for a bench trial is in Jessica Schwarz's best interest, he said.
"We don't want any favors. All we've ever wanted was a fair determination of the evidence induced at trial," Brown said. "We're convinced we've got a better shot ... with the judge."
As his reason for seeking a bench trial, Brown cites the heavy media coverage of Schwarz's convictions on four counts of aggravated child abuse and two counts of felony child abuse. She was sentenced to 30 years for those crimes.
The September trial outlined abuse that ranged from forcing A.J. to eat a cockroach and run naked through his neighborhood to rubbing his face in urine-soaked sheets and making him edge the lawn with a pair of scissors.
"We just didn't feel that, realistically, we could find a fair and impartial panel" for the second-degree murder trial, Brown said.
More importantly, prospective jurors have been deluged by news reports involving the "surge in allegations of child abuse in our area," Brown said, citing the string of child deaths in the area that have received extensive publicity. Given that exposure and the public outrage the cases have generated, the bench trial was the only way to go, he said.
"A judge will be able to look beyond those inflammatory things that have no place in this case," Brown said.
Prosecutor Scott Cupp, who heads the Crimes Against Children Unit at the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office, says he has no problem with Circuit Judge Karen Martin weighing the evidence against Schwarz.
Cupp said a bench trial is preferable for some of the witnesses the state intends to call to testify.
"We think it might be easier on the children that do testify to testify without a jury there," he said. Some of the child witnesses may include Jessica Schwarz's two daughters or neighborhood children.
During the trial, prosecutors must prove that Jessica Schwarz drowned her stepson, whose biological mother lives in Fort Lauderdale, or drove him to commit suicide because of her abusive acts.
On Friday, Judge Martin ruled that the state can introduce some of the incidents of abuse for which Jessica Schwarz was convicted in September because they show a motive for the boy's killing. Other incidents, the judge said, would not be allowed as evidence because they were merely examples of "inappropriate parenting skills."
Prosecutors also must prove Schwarz is guilty of two counts of felony child abuse and one count of tampering with a witness. The witness tampering charge is a crime prosecutors say was captured on videotape when a police security camera recorded Schwarz telling a daughter, "Don't tell [investigators) anything because Mommy could go to jail."
The felony abuse charges stem from the way Schwarz treated her two daughters while being videotaped at the police station after A.J.'s death.

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PROSECUTOR: A.J.'S STEPMOTHER TOOK DISCIPLINE TO DEADLY LEVEL
Sun-Sentinel
March 21, 1995
MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer

Jessica Schwarz killed her 10-year-old stepson, Andrew "A.J." Schwarz, but it's unclear how the drowning took place, a prosecutor said on Monday.
"There's no doubt she did it. We just don't know how. Only she knows," Assistant Palm Beach County State Attorney Scott Cupp said in his opening statement on the first day of Schwarz's murder trial.
"He was 10 years old when he died, naked and alone in that backyard pool," Cupp said. "It's no mystery that the defendant killed A.J. She probably enjoyed it."
Schwarz, 40, a former truck driver, is on trial for second-degree murder. A.J.'s bruised, scratched and naked body was found in the family's above-ground pool on May 2, 1993.
Schwarz also is on trial on two counts of child abuse and one count of witness tampering for telling her biological daughter after A.J.'s death not to talk to police because she could go to jail.
On Monday, Cupp told Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Karen L. Martin that A.J., whose birth mother lives in Fort Lauderdale, endured two years of emotional and physical abuse from Schwarz.
The evidence will show Schwarz hated A.J. and that he died as a result of her abusive, disciplinary actions, Cupp said.
Autopsy findings show A.J.'s body had bruises on his arms and legs and scratches around his ears, face and lips. "He didn't have those injuries when he went to bed that night," Cupp said.
Cupp said he would call for testimony a neighbor who heard A.J. cry out in the early morning hours of May 2, 1993, "I won't do it again. I won't do it again."
Schwarz's defense attorney, Rendell Brown, deferred making his opening statement until the prosecution rests its case.
Witnesses called by the prosecution on Monday each testified last year at Schwarz's first trial, when she was convicted on four counts of aggravated child abuse and two counts of felony child abuse. She was sentenced to 30 years in September. The murder charge is being tried separately.
Among the eight witnesses who testified on Monday, seven were neighbors. Of those, six said the boy knew how to swim.
Troy Falk, 13, testified on Monday about seeing A.J. run down the street naked as Schwarz watched from the door of her home. "He was, like, covering himself. He was, like, running, with his hands over his privates."
Troy's sister, Jamie Falk, 15, testified she saw A.J. walking to school in the rain, and Schwarz drove past without stopping. She also testified Schwarz constantly belittled the boy, calling him "stupid, worthless and dumb."
Neighbor Beth Walton testified that A.J. was forced to wear a T-shirt that read: "I'm a worthless piece of [expletive), don't talk to me."Because she was caring for A.J. that day and had to leave the house, she gave A.J. a T-shirt to wear over it, she said.
Walton's daughter, Teresa Walton, 11, testified she rarely played with the boy because he was always doing chores. She also said she once saw Schwarz force A.J. to eat a cockroach that she found crawling on a plate.
Mary Idrissi, A.J.'s third-grade teacher at Indian Pines Elementary, fought back tears as she testified about the nice, depressed little boy in her class.
Idrissi said A.J. was not allowed to have books to take home because Schwarz said he would lose them. Schwarz also told her the boy was not allowed to attend school parties or field trips because he was bad at home.

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LOCAL
The Palm Beach Post
March 21, 1995

FIRST DAY OF SECOND-DEGREE MURDER TRIAL
WEST PALM BEACH - Jessica Schwarz spent much of the first day of her trial Monday shaking her head in denial and exasperation. She is accused of second-degree murder in the death of her 10-year-old stepson A.J. Schwarz, whose naked body was found in the family swimming pool in Lantana. Her attorney made no opening statement in the case.

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SCHWARZ TRIAL A MYSTERY ALREADY
The Palm Beach Post
March 21, 1995
CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Jessica Schwarz shook her head and sighed in exasperation Monday during much of the testimony on the first day of her second-degree murder trial.
Schwarz' attorney, Rendell Brown, did not give an opening statement at the non-jury trial, leaving prosecutors wondering how he intends to defend her against the charge that she killed her 10-year-old stepson, A.J. Schwarz.
Prosecutors admitted they do not know how the boy drowned but vowed to present evidence to show that Schwarz was responsible for his death.
``It's no mystery that (she) killed A.J.'' Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp said. ``She probably enjoyed it.''
To prove their case, prosecutors intend to present evidence that the boy had scratches and bruises behind his ear and on his face when his naked body was found in the family's pool on May 2, 1993, in suburban Lantana, Cupp said. Several neighbors who testified on Monday said the boy was a good swimmer and that he could stand up in the above-ground pool.
Schwarz' attorney continued to fight the efforts of prosecutors to admit testimony about abuse for which Schwarz already has been convicted. But Circuit Judge Karen Martin allowed much of the testimony after prosecutors argued that it proved Schwarz had a motive to kill the boy.
A 13-year-old boy described seeing A.J. run down the street naked, trying to cover himself as Schwarz hollered for him to come home. Other witnesses said Schwarz frequently berated the boy, calling him ``stupid, worthless and dumb.'' Once, Schwarz made the boy wear a humiliating, obscene T-shirt that she had made for him, one witness said.
The trial continues today.

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IN COURT
Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
March 22, 1995

WEST PALM BEACH
Neighbors of Jessica Schwarz and playmates of 10-year-old A.J. Schwarz on Tuesday detailed repeated abuse of the boy in the months before his drowning death in May 1993. Much of the testimony during the second day of Schwarz's second-degree murder trial in Palm Beach County Circuit Court mirrored testimony at an earlier trial, where she was convicted of abusing her stepson.

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SCHWARZ JURORS TOLD OF A CRY IN THE NIGHT
The Palm Beach Post
March 23, 1995
CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

A neighbor said she heard a boy cry ``I won't do it again'' the night 10-year-old A.J. Schwarz died, and the state's key medical expert said he believed the boy's drowning was probably a homicide.
The testimony on Wednesday was the most significant against Jessica Schwarz, on trial for second-degree murder in her stepson's May 1993 death.
But Schwarz' attorney, Rendell Brown, chipped away at the state's witnesses during persistent cross-examination.
Catherine Turner, who lives behind the Schwarzes' suburban Lantana home, said she woke up between 1 and 2 a.m. on May 2, 1993, and heard a young boy cry, ``I won't do it again! I won't do it again!'' She testified Wednesday that she was certain the voice she heard was A.J.'s.
But during cross examination, Turner admitted she twice told investigators that she could identify the voice only as that of a male child, not that of A.J.
Turner also said she didn't know the family living next to the Schwarzes had a 5-year-old son.
The most crucial testimony of the day came from Dr. Joseph Burton, the chief medical examiner for the Atlanta metropolitan area. Prosecutors hired Burton to review the findings of Dr. James Benz, Palm Beach County Medical Examiner, who ruled the cause of A.J.'s death ``undetermined.''
Burton described numerous bruises on the boy's head, face, chin, arms, back and legs, all of which he said, ``could not have happened by accident.''
The most puzzling bruises were on A.J.'s head, along with a cut on the lip and a scratch near his nose. Those injuries could have been caused by holding the boy's head under water, Burton said.
During an hour of cross examination, though, Burton said that while he ``personally'' felt the case was a homicide, he ``professionally'' was unsure.
He agreed, for example, that a scratch and bruises found behind A.J.'s ears could have been caused if he had tried to rip off a face mask after inhaling water from a snorkel. Both a snorkel and mask were found on the bottom of the pool.
Schwarz's attorney posed several other scenarios to explain the boy's injuries and death.
A.J. was taking an anti-depressant that causes seizures but hadn't taken it for several days. Brown suggested that the sudden withdrawal may have increased the risk of seizure but Burton denied the possibility.
Brown also reminded Burton that A.J. had a history of psychiatric problems and may have committed suicide. Burton said he consulted with the nation's top medical examiners, who never heard of a 10-year-old boy committing suicide by drowning, ``but there could always be a first.''
To explain why A.J. was swimming naked in the middle of the night, Brown pointed out that the boy had been grounded and if he wanted to sneak a swim he would have to do so at night, naked, so his stepmother wouldn't find a wet bathing suit.
The trial continues today.

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TEARFUL NEIGHBOR TESTIFIES SCHWARZ SAID SHE WAS GOING TO KILL STEPSON
Sun-Sentinel
March 24, 1995
MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer

More than a year before the drowning of 10-year-old Andrew "A.J."Schwarz, Jessica Schwarz had threatened to kill her stepson, a neighbor testified on Thursday.
Fighting back tears, with her hands shaking in her lap, Laura Perryman recounted the conversation she had as she and Schwarz leaned against a car in front of the Schwarz's Lantana-area home.
"She told me she was going to kill Andrew," Perryman said, stopping briefly to gain her composure.
"It wasn't anything I've heard a mother say before. I've heard mothers in the grocery store say, `I'm going to kill that kid if he does something else.' That was always in jest, but it didn't sound like that," Perryman said. "I told her she didn't mean it. The more I tried to reason with her, the more adamant she was that she was going to kill him."
The conversation upset her so much, she never continued her relationship with Schwarz, Perryman testified.
Schwarz, 40, is in the midst of a non-jury trial for second-degree murder, witness tampering and two counts of felony child abuse.
Already serving 30 years for her convictions last year on four counts of aggravated child abuse and two counts of felony child abuse, Schwarz faces life in prison if convicted.
A.J.'s bruised, scratched and nude body was pulled from the family's above-ground pool early on May 2, 1993.
On Thursday, the prosecution continued its case, presenting testimony to thwart defense contentions that A.J. may have drowned when he went for a midnight swim in the nude in the family's pool.
Calling A.J. a "damaged and pained little boy," psychiatrist George Rahaim Jr. said A.J. would never have sneaked out of the home to swim in the nude.
"For a boy that age, that is just a profoundly humiliating thing," Rahaim said, citing testimony that Schwarz forced the boy to run naked through his neighborhood and walk naked through the family's home as punishment.
When defense attorney Rendell Brown maintained A.J. disrobed to hide from his grandmother the fact that he went swimming, Rahaim said, "Not when that [forcing him to disrobe) was a humiliation and punishment - albeit torture - that he went through from time to time."
"For him to do that, he would have to have an arrogance, a vanity, a confidence about his body," Rahaim said. "A.J. was ashamed of himself. He considered himself dirt."
To bolster their case against Schwarz for witness-tampering and felony child abuse charges, prosecutors showed a 10-minute videotape of Schwarz that was shot at the police station on a security camera hours after A.J.'s death. On the video, Schwarz is heard telling her two biological daughters not to talk to investigators.
"You want me to go to jail? You don't talk to nobody anymore. You just say, `I don't know,'" Schwarz told her daughters, 4 and 10.

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NEIGHBOR: SCHWARZ `TOLD ME SHE WAS GOING TO KILL' A.J.
The Palm Beach Post
March 24, 1995
VAL ELLICOTT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Jessica Schwarz told a neighbor with chilling deliberation in 1992 that she planned to kill her stepson, an emotionally battered child whose body was found about a year later floating in Schwarz's pool, according to testimony Thursday.
``She told me she was going to kill Andrew,'' the neighbor, Laura Perryman, told Circuit Judge Karen Martin, who is presiding over the non-jury trial. ``I told her she couldn't really mean it. The more I told her she couldn't mean it, the more coldbloodedly she said it.''
Schwarz's tone at the time was completely unlike the tone mothers typically use when feeling merely frustrated with one of their children, Perryman said.
``It wasn't like anything I'd heard before,'' she said, her voice breaking. ``She said she just couldn't take it anymore. She told me he (Andrew) was bad.''
Schwarz said at least four times that she intended to kill Andrew, also known as ``A.J.,'' Perryman recalled. She said the conversation so disturbed her that she avoided contact with Schwarz.
Schwarz was convicted in September on six counts of abusing A.J. She is charged with second-degree murder in his May 1993 drowning death.
Schwarz also is charged with witness tampering and child abuse. Prosecutors Scott Cupp and Joe Marx say Schwarz bodily picked up her daughter, Jackie, and ordered her not to talk to investigators about A.J.'s death.
The conversation Perryman recalled Thursday reinforces a theme that ran through the earlier jury trial: Something about A.J., consistently described by teachers and neighbors as well-behaved and starved for affection, tapped a deep well of hostility in his stepmother.
``Very hateful,'' was how Perryman's daughter, Serena, 14, described the way Schwarz treated her stepson. Schwarz called A.J. ``all sorts of obscenities . . . almost any bad name I could think of.''
Psychologist George Rahim Jr. repeated testimony he gave at the abuse trial that portrayed A.J. as a victim of severe emotional abuse and near-constant humiliation by his stepmother.
A.J., whose body was found naked, would never have voluntarily walked through his stepmother's house late at night with no clothes on to go swimming because of ``his own feelings of shame, his own fear of getting caught,'' Rahim said.
Prosecutors are expected to rest their case Monday.

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ATTORNEY ASKS JUDGE TO ORDER ACQUITTAL OF A.J.'S STEPMOM
Sun-Sentinel
March 25, 1995
Author: MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer

A judge is expected to rule on Monday whether Jessica Schwarz should be acquitted of second-degree murder in the 1993 drowning death of her 10-year-old stepson, Andrew "A.J."Schwarz.
After a three-hour hearing on Friday, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Karen L. Martin deferred ruling on a defense request to acquit Schwarz in the killing and on two felony child abuse charges.
Martin, however, denied a defense request to acquit Schwarz of a charge of witness tampering.
Schwarz is accused of killing A.J., whose bruised, scraped and nude body was pulled from an above-ground pool at the family's Lantana-area home early on May 2, 1993. She requested a non-jury trial.
Friday's hearing came after the state rested its case.
During the hearing, defense attorney Rendell Brown argued that the judge should acquit Schwarz.
He cited the testimony of an Atlanta-area medical examiner, who said he thought A.J. was murdered but could not classify the manner of death as a homicide.
"If we parade 50 more medical examiners before your honor, they would all tell you the same thing," Brown said.
Brown also urged Martin to acquit Schwarz of the remaining charges, claiming the state failed to prove Schwarz tampered with a witness, her 4-year-old daughter, or abused that daughter and and her older sister mentally by telling them not to talk to police or she could go to jail.
Prosecutor Joe Marx cited legal precedent that denied acquittals even in cases where the bodies of victims were never found, noting in those cases there's no body to prove there was a murder.
So a questionable ruling by a medical examiner, when a body is present, should not be grounds for an automatic acquittal, he said.
Marx said legal precedence also provide that acquittals can be denied in murder cases when a suspect has made threats to the victim or evidence is presented that shows the relationship between a victim and a suspect was anything but cordial. Marx noted testimony from numerous neighbors who said they saw Schwarz emotionally and physically abusing A.J. One said Schwarz had threatened to kill the boy more than a year before his drowning, he said.

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SCHWARZ ACQUITTED OF ABUSE CHARGE
Sun-Sentinel
March 28, 1995
MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer

Jessica Schwarz was acquitted on Monday of two counts of felony child abuse, but her trial on second-degree murder and witness tampering charges continued.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Karen L. Martin ruled that the state had failed to show beyond a reasonable doubt that Schwarz's biological daughters had been permanently damaged by their mother's abuse.
Schwarz was charged with two counts of felony child abuse for mentally injuring her daughters when she told them she could go to jail if they talked to police.
The conversation was captured on videotape at a police station hours after A.J.'s bruised, scratched and nude body was pulled from the family's above-ground pool behind their Lantana-area home on May 2, 1993.
In issuing her ruling, the judge cited the testimony last week of a psychologist called by the prosecution, who said Schwarz's actions could have harmed her daughters mentally. The psychologist was unable to say conclusively that the girls were injured.
The defense called to the stand Palm Beach County Medical Examiner James Benz, who classified A.J's manner of death as "undetermined."
Benz said the autopsy found that A.J. had older bruises on his head, buttock and legs. In addition, the boy's body also had recent scratches and scrapes on his right elbow, his left forearm, behind both ears, on his nose, his lip, right leg and left ankle. None of the injuries would have caused the death, he said.
Benz said some of the scratch and scrape injuries could have been caused by A.J.'s father pulling the body from the pool, transporting the body to Atlanta for a second autopsy or someone forcing the boy underwater at the time he was drowned.
But Benz said that if the boy had been forced underwater, "I would have expected considerably more evidence of a struggle than what I found on A.J. Schwarz."
He also said no skin tissue was found under A.J.'s fingernails to indicate he had fought off an attacker.
Benz also said the scratches found behind the boy's ears could have been caused by him pulling off a snorkel mask, which was found at the bottom of the pool.
On cross-examination by Prosecutor Scott Cupp, Benz acknowledged that his ego was bruised when prosecutors requested that a second autopsy be conducted by Atlanta-area medical examiner James Burton. Burton testified last week that he thought A. J. was murdered, but said the death should be classified as undetermined.
"You're not saying this is not a homicide?" Cupp asked.
"That is correct," Benz said.

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SCHWARZ ACQUITTED OF ABUSING GIRL
The Palm Beach Post
March 28, 1995
JAY CROFT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Jessica Schwarz, on trial for the murder of her 10-year-old stepson, was acquitted Monday on a related charge that she abused her daughter, now 5.
Schwarz was convicted last year of six counts of abusing the boy, Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz. Her second-degree murder trial started last week and continues today.
Prosecutors also had charged her with witness tampering and child abuse. They said she picked up her daughter, Jackie, and told her not to talk to investigators about A.J.'s death. But Circuit Judge Karen Marks said there was not enough evidence to prove the girl had been permanently injured, and acquitted Schwarz of the abuse charge.
Also Monday, Palm Beach County medical examiner Dr. James Benz - called by the defense - testified that an autopsy revealed A.J. drowned, but he could not ``state with medical certainty whether it was an accident, a homicide or a suicide. No one has brought me sufficient evidence to change my mind.''
The boy's naked body was found in the family's pool in May 1993.
A state-hired examiner from Georgia last week testified that he ``personally'' believed the death was a homicide but he couldn't be sure "professionally.''
Staff Writer Christine Stapleton contributed to this report.

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