One of Minnesota’s most polarizing courtroom moments involved a 65-year-old mother. Julie Louise Myhre-Schnell was sentenced to three years in prison for attempting to kill her adult, wheelchair-bound son. She is the ex-wife of the state’s Department of Corrections commissioner.
The verdict delivered by Judge Joy Bartscher has sparked outrage and clashes between those calling it a miscarriage of justice and those urging compassion for a woman who was crumbling under the weight of caregiving burnout and mental illness.
Prosecutors pushed for the maximum 18-year sentence, arguing that this mother “systematically tried to kill her disabled (…) child.” But the judge cited the case as “less serious” than an attempted murder. The leniency left veteran prosecutors stunned.
The saga began in December 2023, when Myhre-Schnell crushed up Lorazepam and poured it into her 34-year-old son’s feeding bag at his group home in Vadnais Heights, Ramsey County. Her son (who has spina bifida and relies on a ventilator and full-time care) was later hospitalized with low oxygen levels and decreased responsiveness. He survived.
In a text message afterwards, the mother admitted to her son that she had hoped he would “go to sleep forever.” Investigators say she repeated the admission to multiple people, including the victim. “[I] completely regretted he survived,” she told law enforcement. The reason was that she was exhausted and had a mental collapse. In court, Myhre-Schnell told the judge she was “desperate and tired,” convinced her son’s care had become unbearable. She also said that she herself attempted suicide after the incident.
According to the plea agreement, in exchange for 65-year-old Julie Louise Myhre-Schnell’s guilty plea to one count of attempted first-degree murder, prosecutors will waive the aggravating factors in the case. https://t.co/wwlKqHKj5R
— KSTP (@KSTP) July 29, 2025
Prosecutors, led by Scott County Attorney Ron Hocevar, were outraged. “A 36-month sentence for attempted murder is why people feel the justice system is flawed,” Hocevar said. But the courtroom was heavy with grief. Her son and two daughters pleaded for leniency. In a letter to the court, her son wrote, “As a mom, she took good care of me (…) and filled in when there were no nurses.”
Public defender Carole Finneran argued that Myhre-Schnell’s case was an example of caregiver burnout, a condition that is “clinically recognized” yet “predictable in cases like hers.” The judge agreed, but the sentence has divided public opinion.
This mother’s crime unfolded amid a bitter divorce from Paul Schnell, Minnesota’s Department of Corrections commissioner. He later filed an order of protection for himself and their son after her arrest. Court documents reveal that the son, who has been in full-time care since childhood, had been volunteering at a zoo and maintaining friendships
After learning of his mother’s actions, he told investigators, “I made it, I’m still here,” calling the revelation “a lot to process.” Despite this, he also asked the court to forgive her, per Twin Cities.
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The sentence has since gone viral, drawing outrage from true-crime watchers and disability-rights advocates. They see it as proof of a two-tier justice system that sympathizes with perpetrators when mental health is invoked, even in cases involving vulnerable victims. But others view it as an overdue acknowledgment of mental illness in criminal law, especially in caregiving contexts like that of a mother.
