HOULTON, Maine — The Monticello man convicted in the 2023 murder of his live-in fiance was sentenced to 55 years in prison, following a hearing in Aroostook County Superior Court on Monday.
Jayme Schnackenberg, 41, killed Kimberly Hardy execution-style, with two bullets to the back of her head, said Assistant Attorney General Kate Bozeman, before the sentencing.
“Mr. Schnackenberg has just ice water running through his veins,” said Superior Court Justice Stephen Nelson. “The sinister will that is required to package and bind Miss Hardy’s lifeless body was substantial … Her body was found in a ghastly condition so carefully prepared by Mr. Schnackenberg.”
A jury convicted Schnackenberg of the murder in January, following a five-day trial. Jury members deliberated for less than an hour before making their decision.
According to Maine law, the sentence for a murder conviction is a minimum of 25 years to life in prison.
Nelson said that Schnackenberg’s basic sentence was 45 years, but a number of aggravating factors added on more time.
The impact on victims was profound and exacerbated by Schnackenberg’s scheme to conceal the crime by wrapping up the body and discarding it in a remote location, Nelson said.
Rescuers found Hardy’s body strapped and wrapped in trash bags in a remote wooded area off Harvey Siding Road where he told others he thought she would not be found.
Additionally, Schnackenberg attempted to clean the crime scene as well as blame others for the crime, Nelson said.
“The aggravating factors substantially outweigh the mitigating factors,” he said.
The murder boiled down to issues of power and control, according to the justice: She was attempting to leave him and wanted to take the cat with her, but he simply could not let her leave the home. Instead, he killed her, Nelson said.
During her request for sentencing, Bozeman said this was the ultimate form of domestic violence.
“He took great pains to conceal her body in the woods,” Bozeman said. “He maintained a lie.”
In the January trial, 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.
She also argued that Schnackenberg’s behavior — including not calling 911, thoroughly wrapping and packaging her body and leaving it 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 during the trial.
State prosecutors had requested a final sentence of 60 years, while the defense team asked for 38 years.
According to Bozeman, there were a number of aggravating circumstances to warrant a longer sentence, including an extreme lack of acceptance by Schnackenberg and blaming others for the crime.
While Schnackenberg said he was sorry for everything he had done, Nelson said his apology was a “forced contrition delivered without feeling.”
Several of Hardy’s family members and friends shared details about the woman they loved, especially noting her joy for life and her fearless battle against breast cancer.
Hardy’s sister-in-law, Carrie Anderson, said that the family was forever changed when Schnackenberg brutally murdered her in her own home.
“She was kind, hardworking and strong. She would do anything for anyone and ask nothing in return,” she said. “We desperately searched for her for over a week, and we were shattered to hear. Words cannot express our grief.”
Schnackenberg was also ordered to pay $4,500 in restitution.
He will serve his sentence in Maine State Prison.
