The justice system did not break in the case of the state of Washington vs. David Schubert, as one of his defense attorneys suggested last week following a guilty verdict of second-degree murder.
Disappointment, even disagreement, does not equate to injustice.
Everyone involved in this case — from the defense attorneys to the judge to the prosecutors — has worked hard on behalf of the defendant, the victim and the law.
Perhaps no one worked harder in the days before the verdict was announced than the jurors who spent more time deliberating than they did sitting through the trial.
The community held its breath for seven days as 12 jurors hashed over the evidence, debated points and came close to deadlock. "What do we do now?" they asked Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Ronald Castleberry in a note early last week. When Castleberry asked them if it was at all possible for them to reach a verdict in a reasonable amount of time, they surprised many by deciding they’d give it another go.
It was a commendable effort. Especially considering that this was the second criminal trial probing whether Schubert killed his wife, Juliana Schubert, in June of 1989.
Any murder trial is difficult for a juror, but this case was different. There was no body. Not even a weapon or blood spattering or bone fragments. Jurors certainly noticed the lack of physical evidence. In the end it was Schubert’s own words — testimony about threats he made to kill his wife so he could "get some peace" — that played a big role in convincing jurors of his guilt.
Defense attorneys will certainly appeal in an attempt to continue to provide their client with strong legal counsel. It is possible the matter is still not resolved in the courts.
But last week’s verdict did more than provide justice for Juliana Schubert or comfort for her persistent mother, Karil Nelson, whose resolve and sense of peace served as an example for many. It validated the hard work of Snohomish County Sheriff’s Det. Rick Blake, who never lived to see the first criminal trial last year or the 1998 civil case, and that of his former partner, Det. Gregg Rinta, who took over the investigation.
The resolution of this case doesn’t solve the mystery of precisely what happened on or about June 30, 1989. The whereabouts of Juliana Schubert’s remains and the exact cause of her death may never be determined. Neither does it erase the tragedies that have occurred since her murder — namely the deaths of Blake in 1995 and Juliana Schubert’s son, Nickolas, last December.
The verdict does allow people who believed long ago that Juliana was dead, to refer to her that way in a legal sense. She is no longer a missing person, presumed dead. That may be all the closure we get in this case.
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