
Julie Myhre-Schnell (Ramsey County Jail)
Julie Louise Myhre-Schnell, the former wife of Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell, has admitted to trying to kill their severely disabled adult son by poisoning his feeding bag with crushed anti-anxiety pills.
The 65-year-old St. Paul woman pleaded guilty last week in Ramsey County District Court to first-degree attempted murder. The plea deal, made with the Scott County Attorney’s Office to avoid a conflict of interest for local prosecutors, stems from the December 3, 2023, incident at a group home in Vadnais Heights.
According to the criminal complaint, Myhre-Schnell put lorazepam into her son’s feeding bag with the intent that he would “go to sleep forever.” Her son, 34-year-old Paul Francis Schnell, suffers from numerous medical complications including spina bifida, a malformed brain stem, and relies on a ventilator, wheelchair, and 24-hour care.
The deal includes no sentencing agreement, but prosecutors have agreed not to pursue an aggravating factor that could have led to a 20-year sentence. That factor had been based on her son’s extreme vulnerability. Without it, sentencing guidelines suggest 12¾ to 18 years in prison, with a presumed 15-year sentence. Under Minnesota law, two-thirds of that would be served behind bars and the remainder on supervised release.
Myhre-Schnell remains free on $50,000 bail. Her sentencing is scheduled for November 7, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
The attempted murder was revealed months later, after a sheriff’s investigator was tipped off in June 2024 that Myhre-Schnell had told others she had attempted to kill her son. She confirmed the admission during an interview and confessed to crushing and mixing the remaining 31 lorazepam pills from a recent refill before administering them to her son via his feeding bag.
The next day, Paul Francis Schnell was hospitalized in acute respiratory failure with signs of severe overdose. Local Fox affiliate KMSP reported that Myhre-Schnell was experiencing mental health issues in the months before the crime.
Commissioner Schnell, who is also his son’s legal guardian, filed an order for protection in June, citing Myhre-Schnell’s confession and a reported suicide attempt. The filing also pointed to a potential motive: she had texted him about their son being “tortured” during a lengthy hospital stay related to kidney infections and stones.
Two days before the poisoning attempt, Myhre-Schnell filed for divorce. The couple, who once co-founded a 24-hour nursing care company, have four adult children.
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