2 Found Guilty of Manslaughter in Father’s Death : Verdict: Richard and Jerry Heitzman, accused of neglecting disabled Robert Heitzman, were also convicted of elder abuse.

Two Huntington Beach brothers accused of allowing their 68-year-old father to die of septic poisoning in his waste-soaked bed were convicted Monday of involuntary manslaughter and elder abuse, the first conviction in county history to involve both crimes.

Richard Heitzman, 49, and Jerry Heitzman, 45, face a maximum sentence of four years in prison each when they are sentenced March 25. Superior Court Judge Luis P. Cardenas agreed to allow the brothers to remain free without bond until then.

The pair were accused of failing to care for their father, Robert Heitzman, a retired plumber whose infections stemmed from bleeding bedsores. Earlier, a manslaughter charge against one of Heitzman’s daughters, Susan, was dropped, although she is appealing a lesser conviction.

In 1969, Robert Heitzman suffered the first of a series of debilitating strokes that ultimately left him without control of his bowel or bladder. The family’s neglect and abuse of him, prosecutors charged, led to Robert Heitzman’s December, 1990, death as he lay on his rotting mattress.

At the time of his death, the father was receiving combined Veterans Administration and Social Security disability payments of nearly $800 a month, which his oldest son, Richard, used for the family’s rent and food bills. Jerry Heitzman, under his brother’s supervision, had direct responsibility for his father’s care.

According to Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko, the Heitzman household, on Stingray Lane, gave new meaning to the term dysfunctional .

At one point, seven Heitzman family members, spread over three generations, lived in the rented home, which Molko described to jurors as a “stinking, smelly house.” It was worse than awful, he told them, with a “putrid” bathroom and an odor of waste that permeated the dwelling.

“It was the proper verdict; it was the right verdict,” Molko said.

Gregory W. Jones, Richard Heitzman’s lawyer, said he was “disappointed” but “not terribly surprised” by the verdict.

“It was an emotional case,” the defense attorney said. “The photographs were very graphic and presented a physical situation that’s real difficult for people to ignore.”

Jury foreman Dwight F. Herkness, 42, of Huntington Beach, said the panel had some difficulty deciding Richard Heitzman’s guilt on the involuntary manslaughter count because he was acting in a supervisory role only.

The photographs of the elder Heitzman that were introduced by the prosecution were “horrible,” Herkness said.

The money the family received for Robert Heitzman’s care “was not a factor” in the jury’s day-and-a-half deliberations, said juror Michael A. Myers, 37, of Garden Grove.

“I’m sorry that they found us guilty,” Richard Heitzman said after the verdict, “because how is it going to affect everybody that has disabled adults with them? All I can say is if you do have an elder that’s disabled with you . . . give them to the state, let the state take care of them. That’s all I can advise. I’m sorry this is the way it is.”

He said most people don’t understand how difficult it is to care for elderly, disabled parents.

“I’m sorry that I was working two jobs and I couldn’t supervise it,” Richard Heitzman said. “But I’m going to pay for it, that’s all I can say.”

Jerry Heitzman declined to comment on the verdict.