Police found Michael Maurice Schille dead in his bedroom after Jacob John Audie reported the shooting himself.
SOUTH ST. PAUL, Minn. — The murder case that ended with Jacob John Audie sentenced to life without parole began with his own telephone call: At about 8:48 p.m. on April 11, 2025, authorities say he told 911 that he had shot his roommate inside their South St. Paul apartment.
By the time the criminal case concluded more than a year later, that call was only one part of a much broader evidentiary record. Police documented a rifle, magazines, a spent casing and a live round inside the residence. Investigators obtained statements from Audie about the shooting and his relationship with 72-year-old Michael Maurice Schille. Prosecutors later presented evidence of events before the killing as they secured a grand jury indictment for premeditated first-degree murder. A judge convicted Audie on that charge Aug. 19, 2026, and sentenced him six days later to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Officers arriving at the apartment building on the night of the shooting did not have to search for Audie. Authorities said they found him standing in the parking lot near the west side of the building with his phone in his hand. He complied with police and was arrested. Officers then entered the residence and began documenting a scene spread between the living room, kitchen and back bedroom. The rifle was found in the living room. A magazine was on the kitchen table, another was in the bedroom, and an empty carbine casing was found near Schille.
Schille was on a couch in the back bedroom, according to court records. He had suffered a gunshot wound to the head, and medics pronounced him dead at the apartment. Accounts based on the criminal complaint said a television remote remained in his hand. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office later issued its formal findings, identifying Schille as a 72-year-old South St. Paul resident and concluding that he died from a gunshot wound to the head. The office classified the manner of death as homicide. Its report listed both the injury and death as occurring April 11, 2025, at the apartment on 12th Avenue North.
Investigators said Audie acknowledged using Schille’s rifle to shoot him. The complaint described Audie telling police what he did with the firearm afterward: He removed the magazine, set it on a table, took a round from the chamber and placed it near a couch. He then called authorities. That sequence helped officers account for physical evidence they found after entering the apartment. It also meant the early question for investigators was not centered on identifying who fired the shot. Instead, the criminal inquiry turned toward the circumstances and intent behind Schille’s death.
At the time, Audie described himself as someone who helped care for Schille. He told investigators that the men had lived together for roughly one to two years and that he assisted Schille and cleaned the apartment. Prosecutors initially charged Audie on April 14, 2025, with second-degree intentional murder. The charging documents established the state’s allegation that the killing was intentional, but the initial publicly released material did not provide a complete explanation for why it happened. Schille’s children likewise said shortly after his death that they were still trying to understand the reason for the killing.
That legal picture changed five months later. On Sept. 11, 2025, the Dakota County Attorney’s Office announced that a grand jury had indicted Audie on premeditated first-degree murder while retaining the second-degree intentional murder count. The distinction was critical. The new charge alleged advance deliberation rather than an intentional killing alone and exposed Audie to a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole if convicted. Prosecutors’ announcement reiterated the 911 call, the rifle evidence and Audie’s statement that he had shot Schille with the victim’s own firearm.
Later reporting on court records disclosed evidence that provided additional context for the premeditation allegation. Authorities reportedly found a four-page handwritten letter in the home with the title “Michael’s forgiveness.” Audie was reported to have identified himself as its author. Court material cited by news organizations also described a conversation several days before the shooting in which Audie and Schille discussed ending Schille’s life. According to those records, Schille indicated that he was not ready. Audie was reported to have later characterized his own act as intended to end Schille’s life and suffering.
The case therefore moved far beyond the spare description in the original complaint. What began as an intentional-murder prosecution based on a fatal shooting, physical evidence and Audie’s statements became a first-degree murder case in which prosecutors relied on evidence they said demonstrated planning. Those later allegations did not change the medical examiner’s basic findings or the physical evidence from the apartment, but they changed the level of homicide charge Audie faced and eventually the sentence imposed on him.
Schille’s family provided a different kind of record of the man whose death was at the center of the prosecution. His children identified him as a Navy veteran who had received an honorable discharge. They said in the days after his death that they had expected more time to make memories with their father. Other accounts from his family said he had dealt with health problems. An obituary described a man who enjoyed camping, spending time on the water and riding his Harley. He was survived by two daughters and two granddaughters.
Audie’s case eventually reached Judge Kathryn Iverson without a traditional jury trial. He proceeded through a stipulated facts trial, meaning the judge decided the charges from an agreed record. On Aug. 19, 2026, Iverson found him guilty of both premeditated first-degree murder and intentional second-degree murder. The verdict resolved the central factual question that the criminal process had been examining since the night Audie stood in the parking lot waiting for police.
On Aug. 25, Iverson imposed life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The sentence was the direct consequence of the first-degree premeditated murder conviction and left no future parole date. Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena’s office announced the sentence the same day, saying Audie remained at the county jail pending his transfer to the Minnesota Department of Corrections.
The final disposition thus connected two moments separated by more than 16 months: Audie’s 911 call reporting what he had done and the judge’s life-without-parole sentence after finding the killing premeditated. The county attorney’s sentencing announcement identified transfer to state corrections as the next confirmed step in the case.
Author note: Last updated Sept. 30, 2026.