Left: Johnathan J. Schafer (Sherburne County Jail). Right: Julia Marie Marthaler (Williams Dingmann Family Funeral Homes).
A 35-year-old man in Minnesota will spend less than a year behind bars for failing to stop and help his girlfriend when she died after jumping out of a moving truck while he was driving.
Tenth Judicial District Judge Walter M. Kaminsky on Thursday ordered Johnathan James Schafer to serve 364 days in a local jail (with 175 days of time already served) followed by three years on probation over the death of 23-year-old Julia Marie Marthaler, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show. Schafer in September pleaded guilty to one count of felony failure to stop after a traffic crash that resulted in injury or death and one count of misdemeanor driving while intoxicated.
The judge also handed down a two-year suspended sentence, meaning that if Schafer violates the terms of his probation at any point, he will have to serve those years in a state prison. Such conditions include abstaining from alcohol and drug possession, undergoing substance abuse and mental health treatments, and taking a driver improvement course, among other things.
According to a probable cause affidavit, on the night of May 15, Schafer”s mom called 911 and told a dispatcher with the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office that her son had just phoned to tell her his girlfriend “had jumped out of his truck.”
Five minutes later, another woman, later identified as Schafer’s friend, called 911 to report that Schafer had just called and told her “his girlfriend had jumped out of his truck, that he was not with his girlfriend, and that she was near a cemetery and he was in [Becker City] park.” Schafer said he checked on Marthaler and found her to be “unresponsive,” but was no longer with her.
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Both callers later told authorities that Schafer sounded intoxicated.
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.
