Suspect in Caretaker’s Slaying Found Hanged

VAN NUYS —  A 55-year-old prisoner, arrested on suspicion of killing a Sherman Oaks caretaker to take the dead man’s job, scratched the words “Not Guilty” on his hand Tuesday and hanged himself, police reported.

Theodore Elert Lewis, accused of shooting to death Stephen Schwarzwald on Aug. 11 and stuffing the body in Schwarzwald’s car, was being held at the Van Nuys Jail in lieu of $1-million bail.

He was arrested Friday on suspicion of the killing and investigators had until Tuesday to present the case to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, said LAPD Det. Stephen Fisk of the Van Nuys station.

“We had the reports all done,” he said Tuesday. “The district attorney called this morning to find out when we were coming over.”

Jailers doing routine checks just after 4 a.m. found Lewis’ body, said Lt. Don Hartwell of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery/Homicide Division, which investigates deaths of jail prisoners.

Lewis apparently tied a strip of material from a mattress around his neck, Hartwell said. He was pronounced dead at the scene by a jail doctor. It was not clear what he used to scratch words into his hand, police said.

“It’s really straightforward,” Hartwell said. “[Jailers] make regular checks and when they came around this time they found him.”

An examination of Lewis’ body was pending, but “it would appear to be a suicide,” said Scott Carrier, a spokesman for the Los Angeles coroner’s office.

Lewis had shown no signs of being suicidal following his arrest, Fisk said.

According to police, Schwarzwald, 41, had been the live-in caretaker for about 20 years of William Braem--described as a man in his 80s who uses a wheelchair. Lewis knew Braem and Schwarzwald for about 15 years, Fisk said.

Schwarzwald left the Braem house in the 400 block of Cody Road--in an upper middle class hillside neighborhood--about 7 p.m. on Aug. 10, Braem told police. The elderly man filed a missing persons report the following morning when he could not find Schwarzwald.

The following morning, investigators found Schwarzwald’s mint green, two-door Lincoln parked in the driveway. His fully-clothed body was discovered in the trunk with a bullet wound in the upper torso, according to police.

Lewis moved in with Braem as his new caretaker the same day, Fisk said.

“When the old caretaker was murdered, [Braem] turned to his next best friend--and it was this guy here,” Fisk said.

“We felt money was definitely a motive,” said Det. Greg Yacoubian, alleging that Lewis had significant debts and planned to take over Schwarzwald’s paycheck.

Fisk said Lewis had been suspected of the crime from the beginning and by Friday investigators had gathered enough evidence to arrest him at Braem’s house.

With Lewis’ death, “our investigation is closed,” Fisk said.