Overview
- Julie Louise Myhre-Schnell, 65, pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted murder and on Friday received a 36-month sentence after her son asked the court for leniency.
- Under Minnesota’s two-thirds incarceration rule and with credit for time served, she is expected to spend just under two years in prison with the remainder on supervised release.
- Investigators say she crushed lorazepam and put it into her ventilator-dependent son’s feeding bag at a Vadnais Heights group home on Dec. 3, 2023.
- Prosecutors with the Scott County Attorney’s Office sought an 18-year term and called the three-year sentence “completely inappropriate.”
- Because her ex-husband is the state corrections commissioner, the case was handled outside Ramsey County, Commissioner Paul Schnell recused himself from DOC decisions, and the DOC says she is being held in a county jail while an out-of-state placement is arranged rather than being housed at MCF-Shakopee.