A South St. Paul man charged with fatally shooting his 72-year-old roommate and care recipient last year has waived his right to a jury trial, opting instead to have a judge decide his fate based on stipulated facts. Jacob John Audie, now 37, called 911 on April 11, 2025, to report that he had shot and killed Michael Maurice Schille inside their apartment on the 700 block of 12th Avenue North, according to prosecutors.
Audie was initially charged with second-degree intentional murder, but a Dakota County grand jury later returned an indictment upgrading the charge to first-degree premeditated murder, as reported by KARE 11. The grand jury returned its formal indictment on September 11, 2025, according to the Dakota County Attorney's Office, five months after the initial complaint was filed. Court documents cited by the station indicate Audie had lived with Schille, described as a veteran, for the last year or two, helping care for him and clean the apartment.
When South St. Paul police officers responded to the apartment, they found Schille dead in the bedroom. KARE 11 reports police say he was found sitting in a chair, while Law & Crime reports he was discovered on a bedroom couch clutching a television remote control. Officers recovered Schille's AR-15 rifle and an empty carbine casing on the couch near him, according to the criminal complaint.
A Handwritten Letter Titled “Michael's Forgiveness”
According to court documents, Audie wrote a four-page handwritten letter titled “Michael's Forgiveness” and placed it on the living room coffee table, along with a pipe, rosary, and medicine pouch. He told investigators he wrote the letter later that night, following the shooting. In it, he wrote, “I made sure it was quick and painless as possible but that doesn't matter, what matters is I accept and always will take responsibility for my actions.”
Audie also wrote that he would do it again in the same manner and described acting “with the intent to end life/suffering,” according to court documents referenced in the KARE 11 report. Court documents state that Audie had talked with Schille about ending his life a couple of days before the shooting, and that Schille told him he was not ready. Prior to moving into the South St. Paul apartment, Audie had resided in Hudson, Wisconsin, according to Limitless Media News.
Procedural Move Preserves Appeal Rights
By waiving his right to a jury trial, Audie has maintained his plea of not guilty, preserving his opportunity to appeal. Under Minnesota Rule of Criminal Procedure 26.01, subdivision 4, a defendant may waive a jury and proceed on stipulated facts while preserving the right to appeal dispositive pretrial evidentiary rulings, according to Justia Law. That procedure, formerly known in Minnesota practice as a Lothenbach procedure, allows a court to render a verdict from agreed-upon written records and police reports rather than testimony before a jury.
The stakes of that trial are severe. A conviction for first-degree premeditated murder carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of release under Minnesota Statutes Section 609.185, according to Lundgren & Johnson, P.S.C. Minnesota abolished capital punishment in 1911, meaning life without release is the maximum sanction available under state law, according to Mauzy Law.
Family Remembers a Father Who Loved the River
Schille's daughters, Jessica Comer and Andrea Schille, told KARE 11 that their father struggled with health problems. Comer said her family spent every weekend on the river in a boat, and that her family will not get to make more of those memories. Relatives described Schille as someone who loved telling jokes and riding his Harley-Davidson, and court documents indicate he and Audie got along.
Part of a Broader Pattern in Dakota County
Audie's case follows a pattern seen elsewhere in the south metro, where prosecutors have used grand juries to elevate initial second-degree murder filings to first-degree premeditated murder indictments. In April 2026, a Scott County grand jury indicted Prior Lake resident Aaron Matthew Schlossin on upgraded first-degree premeditated murder charges after he was initially charged with second-degree murder in an April 2025 death, as Hoodline previously reported. Dakota County courts have also turned to bench trials in other South St. Paul homicide cases, including one opened in April 2026 stemming from a September 2025 fatal shooting.
No trial date has been publicly set for Audie's stipulated-facts proceeding. The case remains before Dakota County District Court, where a judge rather than a jury will ultimately weigh whether the shooting amounted to premeditated murder or the mercy killing Audie has described in his own writings.
