A jury of nine men and three women on Friday afternoon found Jayme Schnackenberg guilty of murder in the 2023 shooting death of Kimberly Hardy — a decision they reached following a five-day trial in Aroostook County Superior Court in Houlton.
Jurors deliberated for less than an hour before handing down the verdict.
Schnackenberg’s attorney asked the court to poll the jury members, and each affirmed the decision.
On Monday, the first day of the trial, the state told the jurors that Schnackenberg, 41, of Monticello, murdered his girlfriend of six years by shooting her twice in the head and that he thought he could get away with it because he had hidden her body in a remote wooded area off the Harvey Siding Road where she would not be found.
Schnackenberg’s attorneys have acknowledged their client shot and killed Hardy, but they argued it was done in self-defense while the two were fighting.
During testimony on Thursday, Schnackenberg clearly described an alleged kitchen altercation that he said led to the shooting death of his girlfriend, but he said he was unable to recall any details about how, when or why he discarded her body.
In closing arguments on Friday morning, one of Schnackenberg’s attorneys, Ben Everett, said that the state had the burden to prove to the jury that the gun going off was not the result of Schnackenberg’s uncontrolled reflex.
“You’ll have to consider intoxication. The law instructs that evidence of intoxication may raise a reasonable doubt that Jay acted intentionally or knowingly,” Everett said, referring to Schnackenberg’s drug use. “He pulled the trigger as a result of a reflex. In no way did Jay intentionally or knowingly kill her.”
Assistant Attorney General Kate Bozeman said that Schnackenberg’s self-defense story, which he presented after offering several other accounts that detailed Hardy’s disappearance and shifted blame for her death, did not add up.
His tale of self-defense and accidents was unbelievable, she said.
Bozeman also argued that Schnackenberg’s behavior — including not calling 911, thoroughly wrapping and packaging the body of his dead fiance, and disposing of her body in a remote section of woods like she was a piece of garbage — was not consistent with acting in self-defense.
“Trying to frame other people for your crime is not the behavior of a person acting in self-defense. Pushing forward after an initial shot and connecting again with your fiance’s head, and pulling the trigger for a second time is not self-defense and it is not a reflex,” she said.
Over the course of five days, jurors heard Maine State Police interviews with Schnackenberg and saw detailed evidence collected at the scene, including multiple blood samples matching Hardy’s DNA and a fragment of skull that fell from a mop at Schnackenberg’s Monticello home. There was testimony from evidence analysts, surveillance footage of Schnackenberg’s movements in the days following Hardy’s death and testimony from friends and acquaintances, including two brothers who said Schnackenberg told them he shot Hardy in the head twice.
When Schnackenberg took the stand in his own defense, he detailed drug use, violence and a deteriorating relationship with Hardy, and he admitted to initially lying to police before sharing his self-defense story in court.
A sentencing hearing will be scheduled. According to Maine law, he could be sentenced to no less than 25 years and up to life in prison.
He is currently held without bail in the Aroostook County jail in Houlton.
