Three-year sentence for ex-wife of Minnesota corrections commissioner who tried to kill son

The former wife of Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell received a three-year term Friday — a small fraction of what the prosecution wanted — for trying to kill their disabled adult son with a potentially lethal dose of medication.

Moments after her son asked the court for leniency, Julie Louise Myhre-Schnell, 65, of St. Paul was sentenced in Ramsey County District Court after pleading guilty to first-degree attempted murder. She put anti-anxiety medication in Paul Francis Schnell’s feeding bag in his Vadnais Heights group home on Dec. 3, 2023.

Her hope was that he would “go to sleep forever,” according to a criminal complaint filed in August 2024.

With credit for time in jail after her arrest, Myhre-Schnell is expected to serve just shy of two years in prison and the balance on supervised release.

Ron Hocevar, whose Scott County Attorney’s Office handled the case to allow Ramsey County prosecutors to avoid an unspecified conflict of interest, called the sentence imposed by Judge Joy Bartscher “completely inappropriate.”

Hocevar said prosecutors argued in vain for an 18-year term, the maximum allowed under state guidelines.

Myhre-Schnell “was charged with attempting to commit the most serious charge Minnesota has — first-degree pre-meditated murder. [She] systematically tried to kill her disabled son — her own child."

The Department of Corrections operates Minnesota’s lone women’s prison, located in Shakopee. Paul Schnell handed oversight of his ex-wife’s custody to his deputy commissioners, agency spokeswoman Shannon Loehrke said.

“Because of the conflict of interest posed by this commitment,” Loehrke said, “it is not anticipated that she will ever be housed at MCF-Shakopee.”

In the meantime, Loehrke added, Myhre-Schnell will be held in a local county jail until arrangements out of state can be made.

Schnell told the Minnesota Star Tribune that “under the circumstances, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the sentence.”

He said his son “provided a statement to the court requesting leniency. He asked that his mom not be subjected to incarceration and that she get mental health support ‘and maybe some community service.’”

Their daughters submitted video and written statements in support of their mother, he said.

Schnell, named corrections commissioner in January 2019, is sole guardian of Paul Francis Schnell. He filed a petition for an order for protection in late June 2024 against Myhre-Schnell on behalf of himself and his son. The petition cited her admissions that she tried to kill their son — which he reported to the Sheriff’s Office — and her attempt to kill herself with a drug overdose.

Schnell’s filing also shed light on a motive. It said Myhre-Schnell texted him that she saw their son being “tortured” during treatment for kidney stones and kidney infection for several months.

The text said their son, who as an infant joined the family as a foster child, “has considerable medical issues” that include spina bifida and a malformed brain stem. The filing added that he requires a wheelchair, a ventilator and 24-hour care.

Myhre-Schnell filed for divorce two days before their son’s alleged poisoning at Regency Home Care. The divorce has since been finalized.