Bio

Eryn Haylee Mayer was born in 1977. She attended Martin County High School. Records show her maiden name was Mayer.

She met Michael Donald Allegra when they were students at the high school. He said he asked her out. He described her as witty, smart and a little reserved. The couple moved in together and had a son, Tristan. They married in February 2000.

Public records list addresses for her in Stuart and Jensen Beach from June 1998 to November 2001. Later records show she rented a room on the 2200 block of Southeast Bowie Street in Port St. Lucie.

She worked off and on as an independent contract carrier for The Stuart News starting in August 2000. She also worked at Liberty Medical Supply and had worked at a day care center. Neighbors described her as courteous but not very sociable. Her grandmother was Catherine Whiting of Stuart.

Murder Story

On Christmas Eve 2008, Eryn Allegra and her eight-year-old son, Tristan, stayed in a room at the Holiday Inn in Port St. Lucie. She gave him eight Advil pills to put him to sleep on Dec. 24. Between 3 and 4 a.m. on Dec. 25, she smothered him with a pillow, according to a police affidavit. After she was sure he was dead, Allegra slit her wrists in an unsuccessful suicide attempt and later called 911. She left a letter in the hotel room that said, "You'll always be my sweet boy."

After being treated at the hospital for cuts to her wrists and arms, Allegra was questioned by police and confessed. She told investigators she knew what she was doing when asked if she was crazy or insane. She gave police a description of the night they spent in the hotel and how she had Tristan turn off a cartoon she thought was inappropriate.

The State Attorney’s Office filed charges in 2009 and a grand jury later indicted Allegra on premeditated first-degree murder. On Feb. 2, 2010, she pleaded guilty to premeditated first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse. As part of the plea, she avoided the death penalty and was sentenced by Circuit Judge Dan Vaughn to life in prison plus 30 years to run consecutively.

Allegra told police she had faced serious financial problems since August 2007, had lost jobs, and had ended a relationship in which she had been pregnant and later lost the baby. She said she killed Tristan rather than leave him with his father. In a journal she wrote, "I am just alone. Nowhere else to go. ... People move on. I just can't."

Tristan’s father, Michael Allegra, learned of the confession while in jail and later helped plan his son's funeral. After the sentencing, Tristan’s paternal grandmother, Margaret Allegra, and Allegra’s grandmother, Catherine Whiting, spoke at the hearing and afterward, saying they were shocked and that they would visit Allegra in prison.