Longmont postal shooting trial delayed

Nov. 23—The accused co-conspirator in a Longmont shooting had his trial pushed back to April.

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.

After a judge ruled the two defendants must be tried separately, Ritchie was set to begin trial on Dec. 5 while Schreiner was set for Feb. 27.

But Ritchie's defense attorneys on Nov. 17 filed a motion to continue the trial so a hearing could be scheduled on the admissibility of electronic evidence used to track Ritchie's whereabouts the day of the murder.

Defense attorneys said a recent ruling in a Larimer County case that used the technology could be relevent, and asked for enough time to request transcripts of that ruling and prepare witnesses.

At a hearing Wednesday to discuss the motion, Boulder Deputy District Attorney Alison Brand said prosecutors were not objecting to the delay.

Brand said they felt the defense had cause to request the hearing, and "we don't want to have to try this case twice."

Boulder District Judge Patrick Butler questioned the timing of the issue coming up less than a month before trial, but granted the delay and the request for a hearing.

Ritchie is now set for a hearing on the admissibility of the evidence on April 3 to be followed by his trial on April 10.

He agreed to extend the deadline on his speedy trial rights in order to allow for the new trial date.

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.