Marathon County widow continues to deny killing pharmacist husband as she's sentenced to life in prison
WAUSAU – A 67-year-old woman will spend the rest of her life in prison for the 2006 shooting death of her husband, a pharmacist whose slaying had gone unsolved for over a decade.
Marathon County Circuit Judge Michael Moran sentenced Cindy Schulz-Juedes to life in prison Wednesday morning, calling her actions following the death of her husband, Kenneth Juedes, "callous and unfeeling." Moran ordered that Schulz-Juedes never be eligible for release from prison.
Juedes, 58, worked as a pharmacist at Memorial Health Care in Medford. He was found dead around 8:20 a.m. Aug. 30, 2006, by Schulz-Juedes, in their home in the western Marathon County town of Hull.
In October, a jury found Schulz-Juedes guilty of being a party to the crime of first-degree intentional homicide in the death of her husband and obstructing an officer. Prosecutors charged Schulz-Juedes more than 13 years after her husband was shot to death in their home south of Abbotsford.
On Wednesday, Schulz-Juedes continued to say she did not kill her husband, starting many of her sentences to the judge with the phrase, "As an innocent person."
She criticized her trial attorney and said the conviction "hurt my soul."
Three of the victim's family members talked about how Schulz-Juedes had torn their family apart with "a tangled web of lies" years before Juedes' murder. They also spoke of how Schulz-Juedes refused to let them give Juedes a funeral or see his remains after his death.
Schulz-Juedes' attorney, Michael Hughes, said the appeals process for the conviction already is under way. He told Moran the sentencing wasn't the time to argue the facts of the case. That will be done in the appellate process, he said.
Hughes focused on what is called a presentence investigation report. The writers of the reports use a series of questions to place defendants on a scale in a number of areas, including likeliness to reoffend, violence and anger. Schulz-Juedes had the lowest possible score in every category, except violence, and she was high on that because of the homicide conviction, Hughes said.
Hughes said he's never seen comparable scores with any other defendant.
According to the criminal complaint, Schultz-Juedes went to a neighbor's home shortly after 8 a.m. Aug. 30, 2006, and told the neighbor that her husband "was bloody all over his chest." The neighbors said Schulz-Juedes was "hysterical" but not crying.
When a dispatcher asked Schulz-Juedes, through one of the neighbors, if Juedes was talking or awake, she responded he wasn't awake, according to the complaint. Schulz-Juedes said she didn't know what happened and he was lying in the bed in blood. She also said the phones in the house didn't work.
A forensic pathologist determined someone shot Juedes twice with a 20-gauge shotgun. A detective determined the person shot Juedes once in the back and then, after he rolled onto his back, a second time in the chest.
Schulz-Juedes laid claim to $950,000 estate, police say
Police say Schulz-Juedes told them she slept in a camper outside the couple's home the night before, to avoid the noise in the house. She told them she went to check on Juedes the next morning because his vehicle was in the driveway and she thought he was late for work.
Schulz-Juedes' ex-husband gave her a shotgun similar to the one used to shoot Juedes, according to the complaint. When officers asked her about the shotgun in 2019, Schulz-Juedes said someone stole it a year before her husband's death, but she had not reported the theft to police.
A detective learned Juedes' estate, including various life insurance policies, was worth more than $950,000.
At first, Schulz-Juedes said she couldn't find Juedes' will but later found a copy, dated almost two years prior, that left everything to her. The attorney and witness named on the will both said they were not involved in its creation, according to the criminal complaint.
Schulz-Juedes didn't call Juedes' mother the day he died, Marathon County District Attorney Theresa Wetzsteon said. Instead, that evening, his mother heard a knock on her door and two officers told her about her son's death.
Moran said the messages Juedes' mother sent to Schulz-Juedes asking her for information about her son, a funeral and family property given to Schulz-Juedes were heartbreaking.
In 2016, 10 years after the homicide, Marathon County investigators said they were updating their plan of action in a new bid to solve the case. They planned to put one Marathon County detective on it for about 30 hours a week.
The investigation took several twists and turns, including a man who "confessed" in 2013 he drove the getaway car when Butch Patrick, the actor who played Eddie Munster in the TV series "The Munsters," shot Juedes. Police said they ruled out that theory quickly.
Moran also ordered Schulz-Juedes to pay more than $1 million in restitution. Hughes did not request a restitution hearing.
Schulz-Juedes has been in the Marathon County Jail since Moran set a $1 million cash bond for her in December 2019. Taycheedah Correctional Institution near Fond du Lac serves as the reception center for female state inmates.
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Contact Karen Madden at 715-345-2245 or kmadden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KMadden715, Instagram at @kmadden715 or Facebook at facebook.com/karen.madden.33.
This article originally appeared on Wausau Daily Herald: Cindy Schulz-Juedes sentenced to life in prison in death of husband
