Andrew Ritchie, the second defendant in the Longmont shooting of a postal carrier, has been found guilty by a jury and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Ritchie, 36, was found guilty of first-degree murder after deliberation Wednesday for the death of Jason Schaefer, 33, who was fatally shot while on his postal route in Longmont on Oct. 13, 2021. In closing statements, Ritchie was described as the “eyes and ears” of Devan Schreiner, 28, who was found guilty in March of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting Schaefer.
“With today’s guilty verdict, the two people responsible for this premeditated and cold-blooded murder will be held fully responsible for killing Jason Schaefer while he was delivering mail,” Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said. “These two robbed Jason’s family and U.S. Postal colleagues of a beloved son, father, and friend. Since the first hours after Jason’s murder, I have been deeply grateful for the strong partnership between the Longmont Police Department, U.S. Postal Inspectors, and our team.”
During the trial, evidence was presented of Ritchie’s cell phone being tracked along Schaefer’s route, before he was seen on surveillance footage at a Loveland Hooters at the time of Schaefer’s death. Prosecutors argued Tuesday that Ritchie assisted Schreiner in making a plan to kill Schaefer, which included setting up an alibi for Schreiner and tracking Schaefer over the course of his route to inform Schreiner of his whereabouts.
Prosecutors said Ritchie also encouraged Schreiner to murder Schaefer and presented a text message to the jury from Ritchie to Schreiner that read, “You could just kill them both and make it look like they killed each other.”
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.
According to the affidavit, detectives said that on the morning of the shooting, cell phone data showed Schreiner and Ritchie were both at her Fort Collins apartment before they drove to Ritchie’s home in Loveland.
At that point, it appeared that Ritchie took Schreiner to the Loveland post office, after which Schreiner began her route as a Loveland postal carrier and 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.
Shortly before the murder, Schneider is suspected of parking at Ritchie’s house, where her phone remained stagnant for the next couple of hours.
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, detected 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.
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