The former wife of the commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Corrections was sentenced Friday to three years in prison for trying to kill their adult son, who is disabled, by crushing up her prescription anxiety medication and emptying it into his feeding bag at his group home in Vadnais Heights.
Julie Louise Myhre-Schnell, 65, had pleaded guilty in Ramsey County District Court to first-degree attempted murder in connection with putting Lorazepamn and water in Paul Francis Schnell’s feeding bag on Dec. 3, 2023.
Myhre-Schnell faced between 12¾ and 18 years under state sentencing guidelines.
In granting a downward departure, Judge Joy Bartscher said the case was less serious than the typical charge of attempted murder, and that the sentence was “appropriate based on the facts.”
The prosecution asked Bartscher for the maximum sentence. Myhre-Schnell’s attorney, assistant public defender Carole Finneran, argued that she should receive seven to 10 years of probation.
“Her actions must be understood within the context of profound long-term caregiver burnout, a condition that is not only clinically recognized but also tragically predictable in cases like hers,” Finneran said.
According to the criminal complaint, Myhre-Schnell confided in people she was “hoping he would go to sleep forever.” She later said it was because he’d been “tortured” through the process of treating kidney stones and kidney-related infection for several months, DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell wrote in a court document about a text message she sent him.
Myhre-Schnell later told an investigator that she intended to kill her son.
An investigator talked to her son about how he felt when he found out what happened, and he said, “I made it, I’m still here,” but he said finding out what she admitted to “was heavy” and “a lot to process.”
Paul Schnell and Myhre-Schnell married in 1987. They were foster care providers when a 3-month-old ward of the state came to live with them, becoming their son. He has spina bifida and other medical needs that require use of a wheelchair, ventilator and around-the-clock medical care.
Myhre-Schnell had filed for divorce before the incident. It has since been finalized.
Paul Schnell has been the DOC commissioner since 2019. He was previously police chief in Hastings, Maplewood and Inver Grove Heights, and was formerly a St. Paul police officer and Carver County sheriff’s deputy.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
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