Jury picked for Schubert murder trial

By Scott North

Herald Writer

A dozen years after an Arlington woman dropped from sight under mysterious circumstances, a Snohomish County jury was scheduled today to begin hearing evidence she was murdered.

David Schubert, 62, is charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors allege he killed his wife, Juliana Schubert, 30, in June 1989, and hid her body.

Schubert has pleaded innocent, and insists his wife simply walked away from him and their two sons, then ages 6 and 8.

Opening statements were scheduled this morning. The trial may last up to two weeks.

Lawyers spent Monday selecting jurors, asking questions about domestic violence, divorce and the standard of proof in a criminal case where no trace of the victim has been found.

"Do you think it is possible to prove somebody is dead even though their body, their remains, have not been found?" deputy prosecutor Ed Stemler asked at one point.

A man eventually chosen to serve on the jury said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks proves that’s possible because more than 4,000 people are presumed dead, and their bodies not recovered, after terrorists crashed jetliners into buildings in New York and Washington, D.C.

One of Schubert’s attorneys, public defender Richard Tassano, asked prospective jurors about their experience with domestic distress, including situations where they may have said something hurtful to a loved one.

Prosecutors allege Juliana Schubert’s disappearance was the last chapter in a failed nine-year marriage. They plan to introduce evidence David Schubert allegedly had talked about killing his wife to get some "peace," and that Juliana Schubert had told others she’d been threatened with a handgun.

In the weeks before her disappearance, she’d gotten a job outside the home and told people she was saving money to set up an apartment for herself and her two sons.

The trial will revisit history already probed in a 1998 civil wrongful death case against David Schubert brought by the missing woman’s mother. Jurors in the civil trial found the former insurance broker and reserve police officer liable for his wife’s death.

You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431

or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.

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