District Attorney Collin Sims reports that on May 29, 2025, 50-year-old Angelo Russo of Pearl River was sentenced by Judge Tara Zeller to life in prison after a St. Tammany jury found Russo guilty in March on multiple domestic violence charges. Russo received a total of four life sentences on the charges of Domestic abuse battery with a dangerous weapon, Domestic abuse battery by strangulation, Domestic abuse aggravated assault and False imprisonment with a dangerous weapon. He was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for Obstruction of justice by witness tampering. The sentences all run concurrent with each other. Russo faced enhanced sentencing due to his extensive and dangerous criminal history, which includes seven prior convictions for second degree battery, three for stalking, seven for violation of protective orders, three for unlawful and harassing communications, four for driving while impaired, and one for unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling.
Assistant District Attorneys Gary Tromblay and Iain Dover presented the case to the jury. According to trial testimony, shortly after midnight on March 17, 2023, Deputy Santos Aviles with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Office went to a Pearl River residence in response to a 911 call of domestic violence. Upon arrival, Deputy Aviles made contact with the 44-year-old victim at the residence of a relative of the victim. The victim had visible bruises, lacerations and abrasions on her neck, face and forearms. The victim told Deputy Aviles that her live-in boyfriend, Angelo Russo, had viciously beaten her at their residence following an argument. She said he struck her repeatedly with his fists, dragged her from one room to another room, beat her with a curtain rod, and strangled her with a shirt he had wrapped around her neck. He also sprayed hairspray at her and as he did so, used a lighter to ignite the mist – making the hairspray can into a flame-thrower. After beating her for several hours, Russo locked the victim in their bedroom and told her “You will not leave this room alive.” When Russo eventually fell asleep, the victim escaped from their residence and fled on foot to her relative’s house. Once there, the victim called the police. Russo was arrested and transported to jail. He posted bond a week later.
After charges were filed and a trial date was scheduled, concerned family members of the victim contacted the District Attorney’s Office and reported the victim and Russo had moved to Mississippi and were again residing together. The relatives said Russo had resumed beating the victim and they provided photographs of injuries the victim sustained from recent beatings. Specifically, Russo had slammed the victim’s head against a sink – badly gashing her head; he hit her in the forehead with an ashtray – cutting her; and he hit her head with a nightstand drawer – blackening her eye. Prosecutors filed a motion to revoke the defendant’s bail which the court granted after a hearing. After being returned to jail, Russo called the victim and told her to contact the District Attorney’s Office and tell them she lied about everything and that she had in fact attacked him. He also told her to leave the country so that she wouldn’t be available to testify against him. These communications formed the basis for the witness tampering charge.
During the trial, ADA Iain Dover described Russo as a classic example of a domestic abuser imposing his power and control over a victim, even after being confined to a jail cell. ADA Gary Tromblay said the defendant refuses to accept any responsibility for his actions, and instead blames the victim herself and various inanimate objects as the causes of her injuries. Tromblay called Russo a serial abuser and “a homicide waiting to happen.”
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