Former Burney resident pleads guilty to murder committed in 1984
Today in Shasta County Superior Court, 64-year-old Roger Neil Schmidt Sr. pled guilty to charges of murder and sexual assault filed by the Shasta District attorney’s office earlier this year, four decades after the crimes were committed.
He appeared in court in Arizona in July in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank, where he was read his charges which include first-degree murder and a sexual assault charge.
Roger Neil Schmidt Sr. has no other known criminal history, according to statements made by his Arizona defense attorney in July. After his initial hearing in Pima County Court he was held without bail, pending a fugitive hearing, and later extradited across state lines to the Shasta County Jail. Today, in court, he pled guilty to those charges, the Shasta County District Attorney’s office says.
DNA evidence was used to implicate Smidcht, who has been living in Arizona, in a sexual assault and murder committed in Burney 40 years ago. At a press conference earlier this year, Shasta Sheriff Michael Johnson described the tragedy as having “rocked” the rural intermountain community for years, saying 34 different investigators have been involved with the case in the decades since.
Terrance Arndt, who was killed by Schmidt, was only 18 at the time of his death in 1984. According to a press release shared by the Shasta District Attorney’s office today, Arndt and an unnamed 18-year old female victim were parked in his car at night, talking, on Mountain View Road near Burney High School on Dec. 18, when they were approached by an unknown man, now confirmed as Schmidt.
Schmidt, who was 23 at the time, shot Arndt as he used his body to shield the female victim, the DA’s office said. The unnamed female was then sexually assaulted multiple times before Schmidt fled the scene. After being assaulted, the woman managed to drive Arndt towards medical help, but he later died as a result of his injuries.
In 1995, more than 10 years later, the Shasta Sheriff’s office made an arrest in the case. That individual, who was initially identified by the female victim, was eventually exonerated, but not until after spending two years in jail. He was found to be innocent after DNA evidence in the possession of the sheriff’s office was brought to light by his attorneys. That man later won a $360,000 settlement against the Sheriff’s office in the case, the Record Searchlight says.
In the decades since, clues to the murder and assault case went cold. But earlier this year, new DNA methods provided a breakthrough, Sheriff Johnson has explained, connecting Schmidt — who had lived in Burney in 1984 — with the crime. Sheriff’s officials worked with the Texas-based DNA company Othram, using funding provided by Road to Justice and the 525 Project to utilize forensic grade genome sequencing to solve the case.
“It’s extremely expensive,” Sheriff Michael Johnson said of the process, which uses trace or degraded DNA to build a fuller DNA profile.
In July, representatives of the sheriff’s officials traveled to Arizona and used a search warrant to obtain Schmidt’s DNA, the Sheriff’s office said in a press release earlier this year, which matched that in semen found on the female victim’s blouse decades ago. Schmidt was arrested shortly after.
Schmidt confessed to charges of first-degree murder and sexual assault during interviews with law enforcement, the DA’s office says, as well as today in court where Arndt’s parents were in court to witness the plea.
He’s scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 16. The charges against Schmidt qualify him for the death penalty under California law, but the DA’s office says the defendant has agreed instead to a sentence of life without the possibility of parole and waived all appeal rights – meaning he will never be eligible for release.
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Two things, was Schmidt ever on the radar for the 34 investigators in that 40 year span?
And, I hope that Schmidt has had a horrible existence in that time span and his apparent COPD/ breathing issues worsen while incarcerated.
Edogg: This is a good question. I’ll ask.
Timothy Mapes, a spokesperson for the Shasta Sheriff’s office says Schmidt was never investigated prior to this year’s DNA connection.
Wow. If Schmidt didn’t have priors, how did they target him for a DNA sample?
rook: from what I’ve been reading about the forensic DNA process used, the company draws from multiple distant relatives profiles to form a likely guess of whose DNA they may have. A search warrant was then served for Schmidt’s DNA to be gathered.
Affirmative, similar to the Golden State Killer and familial dna. One question further, if another man was identified and he did Two Years in prison/jail, what was the circumstantial or direct evidence to convict? And if only witness or statement derived, it begs the second question, who was the public defender or defense attorney?
Efogg: This Record Searchlight archive article is of interest: https://archive.redding.com/news/arndt-cold-case-dna-test-frees-brewster-ep-378809588-356951981.html
Thank you for the reply and information. Mixed feelings, definitely feel for the victim in the case, but at the same time an innocent man did 2 years in jail. It was a time that DNA forensics weren’t as advanced and we relied on photo lineups and statement/ circumstantial evidence.
It’s good that the real suspect has been caught, and I hope it gives a small sense of justice to the victims families.
Another lifer. That we have to pay to keep behind bars. Ither give them death or leave us tax payers out of it.
My understanding is that the cost of multiple appeals and additional expense to house on death row far outstrip the cost to house on a life sentence.
I commanded Sheriff Johnson and the Sheriff’s Office for pursuing this case to conclusion. It took assets to do this but, it is so important the criminals in Shasta County know that if they commit a heinous crime in Shasta County they will be hunted until convicted or dead. Thank you Sheriff johnson.