Attorney General's News Release

May 30, 1996

Federal appeals court affirms sentence of death row inmate who killed two Jefferson County schoolteachers

Jefferson City, Mo. — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has affirmed the conviction and death sentence of Eric Adam Schneider, Attorney General Jay Nixon said today.

Schneider was convicted for the Jan. 12, 1985, deaths of Richard Schwendemann and Ronald Thompson, two teachers who lived in House Springs in Jefferson County. Schneider and two accomplices invaded the teachers' home, tied them up and beat or shot them to death.

“It has been more than 11 years since Eric Schneider carried out the murder of these these two teachers after breaking into their home,” Nixon said. “It is time for the sentence that a Jefferson County jury recommended to be carried out and justice served.”

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