A 67-year-old Wisconsin woman will spend the rest of her life behind bars for the fatal shooting of her husband more than a decade ago, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show. Marathon County Circuit Judge Michael Moran on Wednesday handed down a sentence of life without the possibility of parole to Cindy Schulz-Juedes for the murder of her husband, pharmacist Kenneth Juedes.
A jury in October found Schulz-Juedes guilty on one count each of first-degree intentional homicide as a party to a crime and resisting or obstructing an officer, a felony and misdemeanor, respectively.
The 58-year-old Juedes, a pharmacist at Memorial Health Care in Medford, was shot to death in the couple’s Abbotsford home at approximately 8:20 a.m. on the morning of Aug. 30, 2006. Schulz-Juedes claimed she found him already dead. He had been shot twice with a 20-gauge shotgun, once in the back and once in the chest. Her husband reportedly gave her a similar firearm as a gift several years earlier, but when asked about its whereabouts, Schulz-Juedes in 2019 reportedly told investigators that it had been stolen.
In December 2019, more than 13 years after the shooting, Schulz-Juedes was arrested and charged with murder.
Schulz-Juedes has steadfastly maintained her innocence, something she continued to do during Wednesday’s sentencing hearing where she repeatedly began her statements to Judge Moran with the phrase, “As an innocent person,” according to a report from the Wausau Daily Herald. She also reportedly used her time before the court to criticize her attorney, claiming she was poorly represented.
“As an innocent person, I know the pain and heartache my husband’s death has caused my family, my husband’s family, and myself,” she reportedly told the court. “He was my companion, my friend, my soul mate, my love, my future, my life.”
But several surviving members of her husband’s family were unmoved by Schulz-Juedes’ claims, reading victim impact statements that told a very different story.
“At this point, you often hear the victims forgiving the person who committed the crime. That will not happen,” an immediate family member who wished to remain anonymous said, according to a report from Wausau CBS affiliate WSAW-TV.
Don Allen, Kenneth Juedes’ brother, reportedly read a statement on behalf of their mother.
“If not for Cindy’s actions on that fateful night, Ken would now be 74 years old, still providing assistance to me, and enjoying the best years of his life with his children and his family,” the statement reportedly said. “She took that all away from him and has lived a life of freedom ever since that night.”
He also reportedly noted that the family had always believed that Schulz-Juedes killed Kenneth for money. Prosecutors at trial similarly argued that Schulz-Juedes put two bullets in her husband to reap the benefits of his multiple life insurance policies. She reportedly ended up cashing out a total of $285,000 from his State Farm policy.
Following Kenneth’s death and her subsequent windfall, Schulz-Juedes allegedly shut her former’s husband’s family out, having his body cremated before the family hold a funeral or even see his remains. Judge Moran was reportedly particularly perturbed by such conduct, calling it “callous and unfeeling,” according to the Herald.
“The family was cut off immediately,” Judge Moran said. “They were not given the decent respect, the basic respect of being able to grieve.”
In an odd twist at trial, Schulz-Juedes’ defense attorneys also suggested that Butch Patrick (born Patrick Alan Lilley) was involved in the killing. He is best known for playing the role of Eddie Munster in the 1960s monster comedy “The Munsters.” The former child actor even testified in October.
Schulz-Juedes’ attorney, Michael Hughes, reportedly confirmed that he plans to appeal his client’s conviction.
