October trial for woman accused in Longmont postal shooting
Sep. 6—A woman accused of killing the father of her child will begin a two-week trial next month following a delay after the defense attorneys said they had just received a large amount of new evidence from prosecutors that they could not review in time for the previously scheduled trial in June.
Devan Schreiner is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jason Schaefer, 33, and was set to stand trial this summer. Following a pre-trial conference on Tuesday, Schreiner will now have a two-week trial starting Oct. 10.
At a pre-trial conference in June, Schreiner's attorney Jennifer Engelmann said prosecutors disclosed more than a terabyte of new information in a "data dump" on April 25 and that the defense team did not have time to review before the trial.
Schreiner and her codefendant Andrew Ritchie are accused of plotting to kill Schaefer while he was delivering mail in southwest Longmont on Oct. 13. According to an affidavit, just after 12:30 p.m. on that date, Schaefer was shot three times next to his postal delivery van, near a cluster of mailboxes on Heatherhill Street just west of Renaissance Drive.
Just two days before the shooting, Schaefer had filed a request to modify parenting time, and witnesses also said Schreiner appeared upset that Schaefer had recently started dating Schreiner's 19-year-old sister.
The morning of the shooting, according to the affidavit, detectives said cell phone data shows Schreiner and Ritchie were both at her Fort Collins apartment before they drove to Ritchie's home in Loveland.
At that point it appears Ritchie then took Schreiner to the Loveland post office, and Schreiner began her route as a Loveland postal carrier while Ritchie drove into Longmont and began following Schaefer on his route.
A rideshare vehicle used by the Englewood prison where Ritchie worked as a guard was seen on camera several times following Schaefer's postal van, and Ritchie's cell phone data and GPS data from Schaefer's postal scanner also appeared to be in the same location for most of the morning, the affidavit states.
Surveillance cameras then spotted Schreiner's SUV — identifiable by a missing hubcap on its passenger side — driving into the neighborhood of the shooting, ultimately parking on Renaissance Drive south of the shooting scene.
Security cameras picked up a person walking from the area of the SUV north toward Schaefer. Another security camera picked up the person approaching Schaefer's van, picked up the sound of gunshots, and then showed the person running from the area, according to the affidavit.
Ritche, in an interview with police, said Schreiner the day of the shooting said "she had everything she needed" and that "today was the day."
Ritchie, whose trial date was also delayed due to the change in Schreiner's trial date, is scheduled for a pre-trial conference on Nov. 9. His new trial date will begin Dec. 5.
