Jury seated in Longmont murder trial, opening statements set for Tuesday
Feb. 27—A Longmont murder trial began Monday with jury selection, and attorneys are set to make opening statements Tuesday morning.
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 with Boulder District Judge Patrick Butler and attorneys narrowing down a field of 103 potential jurors to 14 people, 12 jurors and two alternates.
Butler swore in the jurors and read them final instructions Monday afternoon before releasing them for the day.
Opening arguments are set for 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
A co-defendant in the case, Andrew Ritchie, is set for a separate trial, also on a first-degree murder charge, on April 10.
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 she 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 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, 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 noted that "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 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.
