No verdict yet in Schubert trial

By Scott North

Herald Writer

A Snohomish County jury was expected this morning to begin its fifth day of deliberations on a 12-year-old murder case without a body.

Jurors in the trial of David C. Schubert, 62, of Arlington went home Tuesday without announcing a verdict. They began deliberating Thursday, and have logged at least 25 hours.

Prosecutors spent most of two weeks trying to build an entirely circumstantial case that Schubert, a former Arlington police officer and insurance broker, killed his 30-year-old wife Juliana 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.

Tragically, the youngest son, Nickolas Schubert, now 18, was found dead Sunday in his dorm room at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif. The San Joaquin County Coroner’s Office conducted an autopsy Tuesday and results are still pending, deputy Tina Guerrero said.

No obvious cause of death was found, and the coroner will send tissue and blood samples to a laboratory for testing. Results aren’t expected for about two weeks, she said.

David Schubert was in court late Tuesday while friends and relatives helped him with funeral arrangements.

"I’m amazed that he is able to get here at all," said one of his attorneys, public defender Rick Leo.

While deliberations in the case have been lengthy, they haven’t set a record, said Jim Townsend, the county’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor. Some years ago, jurors were out for a full week before deciding a murder case, he said.

Lengthy deliberations and missing-body murder cases seem to go together.

A King County jury deliberated for five days in June 2000 before convicting Steven Sherer of Mill Creek in the murder of his wife near Redmond a decade earlier.

A San Juan County jury in 1985 deliberated for four days before convicting Ruth Neslund of murdering her husband and burning his body at their Lopez Island home.

Leo said it is clear the jury in Schubert’s case is taking its job seriously and recognizes the importance of trying to reach a verdict in a case that already has gone on for a dozen years.

"Obviously the jury is giving this case great consideration, and that is all we can ask," deputy prosecutor Paul Stern said.

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

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

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