Judge keeps Longmont shooting defendants separate for trials

Nov. 9—Editor's note: This article has been changed to correct the nature of the prosecution's request.

A judge denied a request by prosecutors to combine the two defendants in a Longmont murder case, but the accused conspirator will now stand trial before the accused shooter.

Devan Schreiner, 27, and Andrew James Ritchie, 35, are both charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jason Schaefer, 33, Schreiner's ex-boyfriend and the father of her child.

Prosecutors asked to try the cases jointly, but Boulder District Judge Thomas Mulvahill ruled earlier in the year that the two defendants needed to be tried separately.

Mulvahill has since rotated out of the criminal division and Boulder District Judge Patrick Butler is now overseeing the case, and Butler recently issued a ruling prohibiting some evidence Schreiner's team wished to introduce.

After that ruling, a change in defense strategy and a delay in Schreiner's trial, the Boulder County District Attorney's Office filed a motion once again asking to rejoin the two cases.

"Independent jury trials of defendants Devan Schreiner and

Andrew James Ritchie will require almost the same witnesses and

involves, essentially, almost the same evidence," the motion read. "Almost all the evidence admissible against one defendant is admissible against the other defendant because of their mutual concerted effort in planning, executing, and attempting to get away with the murder of Jason Schaefer."

Prosecutors noted they were willing to not introduce statements Richie made to police at a hypothetical joint trial in order to make sure all of the evidence was admissible.

But defense attorneys for both Schreiner and Ritchie filed objections to a joint trial. Ritchie's attorney Mary Claire Mulligan told Bulter at a hearing Wednesday that "nothing substantial" had changed since Mulvahill's ruling and said prosecutors wanted a joint trial so the two codefendants would "tear at each others throats to do their work for them."

Butler ultimately ruled that the two trials should remain separate, and denied the prosecution's motion.

"Certainly, if the cases were tried together those antagonistic defenses could be problematic for one or both of the defendants," Butler said. "It is certainly an inconvenience to the People, and certainly kind of doubling up with witnesses having to testify in two separate trials, but the court does find the defendants have jointly shown good cause as to why separate trials should occur in these cases."

Meanwhile, Butler and the attorneys also had to address questions about when those separate trials would occur.

Ritchie's case had always been scheduled to follow Schreiner's, but his case is now set for Dec. 5 while her is set for Feb. 27.

Ritchie's attorneys asked for a continuance so his trial could once again occur second, but prosecutors said they were ready to try Ritchie first and Butler denied the motion.

"The evidence is still the evidence," Butler said. "There is no requirement that one defendant go first when two defendants are charged with the single murder of an individual."

Meanwhile, Butler also denied a motion by prosecutors to delay Schreiner's trial. One of the prosecutors said she made an error in accepting the February trial date as she is supposed to be out of the office.

But defense attorneys could not accommodate another trial date until May, and asked that the prosecutor move her vacation or find a replacement since the error was hers in accepting the date initially.

Butler said, "I agree that family is important, vacations are important." But after several unsuccessful attempts at trying to find a new trial date that accommodated all of the attorneys and the court, Butler denied the motion and kept the Feb. 27 date in place.

Both Schreiner and Ritchie remain in custody.

According to an affidavit, just after 12:30 p.m. 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.

Two employees of the Longmont post office, upon arriving at the scene, asked police whether the shooter 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 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 detected 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.

Ritchie, 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.