Two plead guilty in car wash slaying
Two Greenwell Springs residents pleaded guilty Tuesday to manslaughter and other charges in the August 2011 robbery and killing of a 30-year-old man at a North Sherwood Forest Boulevard car wash.
Jeanpaul Rene Creppel, 35, was sentenced to 40 years in prison, and Danielle Charie Palermo, 26, was sentenced to five years in prison in the robbery and slaying of Jonathan Ellis, also of Greenwell Springs.
State District Judge Lou Daniel sentenced Creppel and Palermo under the terms of agreements between the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office and attorneys for both defendants.
Creppel pleaded guilty to manslaughter and armed robbery, and Palermo pleaded guilty to manslaughter and simple robbery.
District Attorney Hillar Moore III said Creppel must serve 85 percent of his 40-year term.
Palermo cooperated with prosecutors, he stated.
“The only reason we accepted this offer (from the defendants) was at the request of the victim’s family,” Moore said, adding that the family had endured much pain and suffering and did not want to have to go through a trial. “They asked me to accept this offer.”
Prosecutor Franz Borghardt said Creppel shot Ellis with a .22-caliber rifle after Palermo lured Ellis to the car wash so that he could be robbed.
“This family showed mercy to this defendant (Creppel) when this defendant showed no mercy to the victim,” Moore said.
Creppel and Palermo, both of 12824 Pecos Ave., were charged with one count each of armed robbery and second-degree murder in Ellis’ shooting on Aug. 6, 2011 .
Ellis’ body was found later that night under a bridge on Black Mud Road in Livingston Parish between Satsuma and Walker, police have said.