Autopsy raises questions about whether man was murdered
LAWRENCE >> Andrew Schwartz described himself on his Facebook page as a “tragicomedy.” He got the first part right. His life was tragic but there was nothing comical about it.
What is known about Schwartz – the 64-year-old Hightstown man who died 20 days after he was nearly bludgeoned to death, bound with bedsheets and left naked with his throat slashed inside an Lawrence hotel room in 2014 – comes from interviews with estranged family members and from the social media foot print he left behind.
His Facebook and Pinterest accounts are still active, and portray an openly gay man who moved from New York to New Jersey, once worked as a graphic designer, cared about LGBT rights, believed American actor Orson Welles wasted his career and loved the television show “Law & Order.”
His life nearly ended like many of those crime shows begin, with a gory scene. His autopsy report raises questions about his how he died and tells the final chapters of his life.
Schwartz’s relatives had initially disputed the Mercer County medical examiner’s autopsy findings but were reluctant to talk about their dead loved one when they were contacted by The Trentonian this week.
“This is almost like a story you kind of want to leave alone,” Schwartz’s sister-inlaw said in a phone interview this week. She spoke only on the condition that neither she nor her husband’s names were used for this story.
“He is someone who should rest in peace and should be left alone ,” she said .“I feel very sorry for him. He should be finally at peace.”
Strange death
Schwartz was found dead the afternoon of Nov. 2. 2014, inside the Townhouse Gardens in Hightstown, according to his autopsy.
He was pronounced dead at 3:46 p.m., less than three weeks after he had been nearly bludgeoned to death by Kirvy Mims on Oct. 13, 2014, inside a Red Roof Inn hotel room on Brunswick Pike.
Mims was charged with attempted murder and other counts. But he was never charged with murder, prosecutors said, because they contend Schwartz’s died of natural causes.
Prosecutors based that off Schwartz’ s autopsy, which was conducted by Dr. Raafat Ahmad, the Mercer County medical examiner.
Schwartz’s family disputed the results autopsy, though not forcefully.
There are lingering questions officials refuse to answer now that The Trentonian has learned Schwartz’s manner of death was changed without explanation more than a month and a half after his autopsy was first conducted.
That change, from pending investigation to contending that Schwartz died from natural causes, had stark implications for Mims, the man who admitted nearly beating Schwartz to death.
The Trentonian learned Mims’ attorney was concerned about his client being charged with murder. So he wrote a letter to prosecutors discussing issues of “double jeopardy,” which prevents someone for being charged twice with the same crime or similar crimes.
Mims is being sentenced Friday in Mercer County Superior Court. He is expected to get eight years in prison for aggravated assault.
Schwartz’s family didn’t contest Ahmad’s findings, though they were suspicions of them.
“I guess because of the autopsy they felt it had nothing to do with the beating he got,” Schwartz’s sister-in-law said. “We, however, didn’t feel that way. Why now why all of sudden does he have a massive heart attack?”
Schwartz’s brother felt the same way.
“I did really believe it,” he said .“I really felt that the beatingwas the cause of it, and because of the beating, he had the heart attack. I have no idea. That’s just my opinion.”
The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office would not answer questions about the autopsy report. A county spokesman declined to make the medical examiner available for an interview.
Autopsy report
Schwartz’s brother said his brother was “beaten to oblivion.”
The medical examiner noted Schwartz’s injuries in his autopsy report, but she concluded he died of unrelated causes.
That was more than a month and a half after Dr. Ahmad ruled Schwartz’s manner of death as “pending investigation,” even after she discovered evidence Schwartz suffered from a host of health issues, including heart problems and lung disease.
One medical expert told The Trentonian that alone doesn’t “raise any red flags.” He described it as routine for medical examiners to change manner of death after getting back toxicology results, which were conducted on Schwartz.
“I’ve done that many times,” said Dr. Jonathan Brisk in, a forensic pathologist and alawyer at the firm B risk in& Lewis in Bryn Mawr, Pa. “Everybody has different threshold for making a diagnosis. That part does not make my antennae go up at all.”
Briskin said there are instances when a medical examiner could rule a death like Schwartz’s a homicide. But he said it would be hard to establish a direct connection between Schwartz’s beating and his death 20 days later.
“If somebody gets beaten up and they get a blood clot that kills or if they slashed his throat and he was in the hospital and he had complications, then you would raise a red flag,” he said.
The two-hour-long autopsy revealed the 5-foot-10-inch, 185-pound man had a history of heart disease, hypertension and high cholesterol and that he was a smoker.
Ahmad, the county’s longtime forensic pathologist who often testifies in murder cases, noted Schwartz suffered blunt force trauma to the head, had his neck slashed and spent four days in the hospital before being released Oct. 17.
Schwartz had a pin in his left pinky finger and his hand was still bandaged. He also had a two-inch sc ar on his neck that was healing, according to the autopsy, as well as multiple sutures on head wounds, from where Mims battered him with a claw hammer. The autopsy revealed no skull fractures or brain injuries.
Lone explanation
The only explanation the county medical examiner offered for changing Schwartz’s autopsy findings is a “Request for Correction to NJ Vital Record” sheet, signed by Ahmad and a witness on Dec. 24, 2014.
The autopsy reflects the cause of death was changed to “natural” and cites “acute myocardial infarction due to coronary atherosclerosis.” In medical jargon, Ahmad was saying Schwartz died from a massive heart attack caused by blocked arteries.
Schwartz’s enlarged heart weighed 520 grams. Normal hearts are between 200 to 425 grams, or roughly the size of adult clenched fist.
Schwartz’s family members never saw his big heart because they said he was only close with his mother and a best friend who did not respond to requests for an interview.
Schwartz was formerly a graphic designer at Money Magazine in New York but hadn’t worked in about 20 years. He was on disability, family members said, and he spent much of his later years isolated from family members, including his own brother, who had not had contact with Schwartz in five years.
Schwartz’s brother did not even visit him in the hospital after he was nearly beaten to death.
Schwartz’s sister-in-law was asked about the story of Schwartz’s life.
“I don’t’ think you want it,” she said. “He was troubled. There are things that I am really uncomfortable with. There are some things he did that were, you could say, he was engaged in some sexual stuff. What was he doing with this man that had a record he did not know him well. That he was gay, I could care less.”
Violent assault
Schwartz’s sister-in-law was talking about Mims, convicted felon who admitted to the brutal assault.
Schwartz and Mims met on a dating website and drove together to the hotel the night he was attacked.
Mims bound and gagged Schwartz with bedsheets during the violent episode, then fled from the hotel in the victim’s rental minivan, taking his wallet and laptop.
Authorities spotted Mims the next day along with the stolen van near Hermitage Avenue and Boudinot Street and arrested him without incident. Mims claimed he was high on cocaine at the time of the attack but denied being involved. Mims later pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and is getting a sweet deal.
He faced up to 20 years in state prison if he was convicted of first-degree attempted murder. Instead, he is expected to be sentenced to eight years in state prison.