Judge to Sentence Devil-Horned Defendant in Macomb Twp. Murder

UPDATE: The sentencing has been postponed two weeks due to the absence of the defendant.

The Fraser man convicted of murdering a 69-year-old Macomb Township woman will be sentenced today in Macomb County Circuit Court.

A jury found 29-year-old Joseph T. Reiner guilty Sept. 14 of first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder and home invasion related to the stabbing and subsequent death of Joann Eisenhardt on .

On the morning of the attack, Reiner kicked in the door of Eisenhardt's Fairchild Road home, stabbed her in the neck with two steak knives and fled with $2 worth of stolen jewelry.

Hitching a ride with one of Eisenhardt's neighbors, Reiner eventually made his way to Grosse Pointe Farms, where he broke into two more homes and stole a car he later used to lead police on an almost 100-mile car chase through New Jersey, Assistant Prosecutor Bill Cataldo told the jury during the trial.

Although Reiner covered the pair of devil horns he had tattooed on his forehead prior to his jury trial, Eisenhardt's eldest son Howard said following the verdict that he believed the $60 worth of make-up used to mask them could never "cover what he’s done.”

“There’s only one place those horns will take him and that’s a one-way ticket to hell,” he said. “My mom did not deserve to die the way she did. She was an angel in people’s lives and she’s been surrounded by angels her whole life.”

The Detroit Free Press recently named Reiner one of the state's five worst parole and probation offenders, tracking his record of home break-ins to 2003. He received his first prison sentence in 2006, having been convicted of four counts of home invasion and assault.

Judge Peter J. Maceroni is scheduled to deliver Reiner's sentence at 9 a.m. today.