Left: Johnathan J. Schafer (Sherburne County Jail). Right: Julia Marie Marthaler (Williams Dingmann Family Funeral Homes).
A Minnesota man, aged 35, has been sentenced to less than a year in jail for not assisting his girlfriend after she leapt from a moving truck he was driving, leading to her death.
Johnathan James Schafer was sentenced by Tenth Judicial District Judge Walter M. Kaminsky to 364 days in a local jail, with 175 days already served, and a subsequent three-year probation period. This comes after Schafer pleaded guilty in September to a felony charge for failing to stop at a traffic crash resulting in injury or death, and a misdemeanor charge for driving while intoxicated, as per court documents seen by Law&Crime.
Judge Kaminsky also imposed a two-year suspended sentence. Should Schafer breach his probation terms, he faces serving those two years in state prison. His probation conditions include abstaining from alcohol and drugs, participating in substance abuse and mental health programs, and completing a driver improvement course, among other requirements.
According to a probable cause affidavit, on May 15, Schafer’s mother called 911, informing the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher that her son had just notified her that his girlfriend had “jumped out of his truck.”
Minutes later, another woman, a friend of Schafer, also called 911, reporting that Schafer had called her saying his girlfriend had jumped from the truck, he was not with her, and she was near a cemetery while he was in Becker City Park. Schafer mentioned he found Julia Marie Marthaler unresponsive but was no longer at her side.
Both callers reported to authorities that Schafer appeared to be intoxicated during their conversations.
Becker Police responded to the park where they located Schafer in the driver’s seat of his parked truck, talking on his cellphone. Upon approaching, officers said they “detected the very strong odor of alcohol emitting from inside the vehicle.”
“Officers also located blood on the door, handle, and on the Defendant’s hand. Officers also observed a shotgun cased in the backseat,” the affidavit says. “[Schafer] agreed to travel with Becker officers in an attempt to locate [Marthaler].”
Multiple agencies took part in the search for Marthaler, who was located lying in the grass several feet away from the road in the 5800 block of 140th Avenue Southeast. She appeared to have suffered “severe trauma” and was pronounced dead a short time later.
Investigators said that Schafer spent more than 42 minutes on the phone with his mom and friend after the incident rather than calling 911 for medical assistance.
In a post-Miranda interview with police, Schafer said he and Marthaler went to a bar for dinner where they both consumed alcohol.
“[Schafer] reported that when they left, [Marthaler] did not want to go home and the two drove around backroads,” the affidavit said. “The Defendant reported that an argument occurred and [Marthaler] jumped out of the vehicle. The Defendant stated he stopped and checked on [Marthaler] and she was not responding. The Defendant stated that he panicked when he saw headlights approaching and left the area.”
Schafer’s two-year stayed sentence is higher than normal state guidelines, records show. Kaminsky said he made that decision due to the “unusually cruel treatment” Schafer showed toward Marthaler when he moved her body away from the side of the road and into taller grass, making her even more difficult to locate, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
