Feb. 28—Attorneys made opening arguments in a Longmont murder case Tuesday morning, as prosecutors argued the defendant planned and carried out the shooting while defense attorneys said she was the victim of manipulation.
Devan Schreiner, 27, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jason Schaefer, 33, Schreiner’s ex-boyfriend and the father of her child.
Schreiner is set for a 10-day trial in Boulder District Court that began Monday with jury selection.
Boulder Deputy District Attorney Alison Brand said Schaefer had started a relationship with Schreiner’s younger sister and a few days before the shooting had filed for a change in their custody agreement.
Brand said texts show Schreiner had become “increasingly upset” with Schaefer, at one point saying she was going to throw a party in the woods in which people should “bring their own shovels.”
“When Devan Schreiner found out about that relationship, she was angry,” Brand said. “She was so angry that she spoke with her friends, she spoke with her boyfriend AJ Ritchie.”
Brand said Schreiner and Ritchie conspired to follow and kill Schaeffer on Oct. 13, 2021.
Schaefer was shot three times next to his postal delivery van, near a cluster of mailboxes on Heatherhill Street just west of Renaissance Drive.
“The murderer then fled, leaving Jason bleeding,” Brand said.
Defense attorneys did not contest that Schreiner shot Schaefer, but said she was manipulated into doing so by a jealous Ritchie and did not possess the mindset necessary to be found guilty of first-degree murder.
“She shot Mr. Schaefer,” defense attorney Megan Stewart said. “But those bullets came from a force far beyond Ms. Schriener.”
Stewart said that Schreiner was forced into a sexual relationship as a 13-year-old with a then 20-year-old Ritchie and was then in a controlling relationship with Schaefer.
“Between Mr. Ritchie and Mr. Schaefer, the real Devan wasn’t allowed out, she didn’t exist,” Stewart said, adding that Schreiner was “trapped between these two forces that wanted to control her.”
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Stewart said Ritchie encouraged Schreiner to shoot Schaefer, going as far as to following Schaefer on his route the morning of the shooting. But Stewart said Ritchie then made sure he was at a Hooters in Loveland at the time of the shooting to ensure he had an alibi.
“Devan Schreiner is not a murderer, but she was the weapon,” Stewart said. “She was AJ Ritchie’s weapon.”
Outside the presence of the jury, defense attorneys have indicated they would be asking that the jury be allowed to consider second-degree murder as a lesser included charge at the conclusion of the trial.
Ritchie is also charged with first-degree murder and is set for his own trial in April.