The former wife of Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell has admitted to attempting to kill their disabled adult son by giving him a potentially lethal dose of medication.
According to court documents, 65-year-old Julie Louise Myhre-Schnell of St. Paul pleaded guilty last week in Ramsey County District Court to first-degree attempted murder. Prosecutors said she placed anti-anxiety medication into her son’s feeding bag on December 3, 2023, while he was living in a Vadnais Heights group home. The criminal complaint stated that she hoped he would “go to sleep forever.”
The plea agreement was reached between the defense and the Scott County Attorney’s Office to avoid a conflict of interest for Ramsey County prosecutors. The deal does not include an agreed-upon sentence, but prosecutors dropped their effort to prove an aggravating factor that could have increased her maximum sentence to 20 years.
That factor involved the victim’s “particular vulnerability due to age, infirmity, or reduced physical or mental capacity.” Her son, now 34, has spina bifida and a malformed brain stem. He uses a wheelchair, relies on a ventilator, and requires 24-hour care, the Star Tribune reported.
Without the aggravating factor, state guidelines recommend a prison term between 12¾ and 18 years, with a presumed sentence of 15 years. Typically, offenders serve two-thirds of their sentence in prison and the remainder under supervised release.
Sentencing is scheduled for November 7. Myhre-Schnell is currently free after posting $50,000 bail. Paul Schnell, who has served as Minnesota’s corrections commissioner since 2019, became the sole guardian of their son following the incident. In June 2024, he filed an order for protection against his ex-wife on behalf of himself and their son.
The petition referenced her admissions that she tried to kill their son and later attempted suicide through a drug overdose. Court filings revealed that Myhre-Schnell’s actions may have been influenced by distress over her son’s suffering. In text messages cited in the case, she claimed she witnessed him being “tortured” during months of medical treatment for kidney stones and a kidney infection.
The couple adopted their son as a foster child when he was an infant. Myhre-Schnell filed for divorce two days before the alleged poisoning at Regency Home Care, and the divorce has since been finalized. A 2019 Star Tribune profile reported that the Schnells have four adult children. They previously founded a 24-hour nursing care company to help provide ongoing medical support for their son.