Woman accused of Longmont postal shooting has trial pushed back

May 4—A woman accused of killing the father of her child had her trial delayed after defense attorneys said they had just received a large amount of new evidence from prosecutors that they could not review in time for the scheduled trial in June.

Devan Schreiner, 26, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jason Schaefer, 33, and was set to stand trial starting June 6.

But at a pre-trial conference Wednesday, 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.

"It boggled my mind why we didn't get these things significantly earlier," Engelmann said. "There is no conceivable way that we can accomplish that in time for the trial."

Boulder Deputy District Attorney Carlos Rueda objected to a continuance, saying the prosecutors complied with all deadlines for revealing discovery in the case.

But while Boulder District Judge Thomas Mulvahill said prosecutors did not "technically" violate any deadlines, but the practical effect of submitting that much information six weeks before trial meant "it should not come as surprise to the prosecution that the defense would need more time to review that."

Mulvahill also noted defense attorneys had raised the issue of the amount and timing of evidence in the case at earlier hearings.

As a result, Mulvahill found there was good cause to delay the trial.

Engelmann and fellow defense attorney Kathryn Herold said they would not be able to schedule a trial until the fall, so Schreiner agreed to extend her speedy trial rights to accommodate a two-week trial starting Oct. 10.

"She's not happy, she really wanted this to go forward," Engelmann said. "But we really have no choice."

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.

Two employees of the Longmont post office, upon arriving at the scene, asked police if the assailant was Schreiner, noting the two had been in a custody dispute.

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.

Security cameras then captured the person running south before Schreiner's SUV was again seen, this time leaving the area.

The suspect in the videos was originally described as a man in a dark hoodie, wearing a blue mask. But detectives said a photo later recovered from Ritchie's phone depicts Schreiner in a similar outfit.

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."

According to the affidavit, Ritchie then left the Longmont area before the shooting and was seen eating lunch with friends at a Hooters in Loveland.

Meanwhile, at 11 a.m. both Schreiner's own postal scanner and cellphone were tracked to Ritchie's home and remained stationary until about 1 p.m., with no outgoing transmissions from the cell.

Mulvahill split Schreiner's and Ritchie's cases, and Ritchie is set for his own trial on Aug. 8.