HORNER MURDER TRIAL UPDATE: DAY 7

The jury tasked with deciding the fate of an Owatonna man accused of murdering an on-again, off-again girlfriend got the case about 1 p.m. Wednesday.

They deliberated until about 4:30 p.m. before adjourning for the day, and will return at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

Jason Lee Horner, 41, is accused of shooting Sabrina Lee Schnoor, 25, on May 29, 2023. He was charged with one count of second-degree murder with intent, not premeditated, as well as a felony count of possessing a firearm after being convicted for a crime of violence.

Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Mary Russell spent about 90 minutes outlining the prosecution’s case in her closing argument.

“Sabrina spent her last moments with the barrel of a gun pressed up against her mouth – or even worse, with that barrel inside her mouth,” Russell said.

“This wasn’t an accident. This wasn’t a suicide. This was an intentional murder committed by the defendant, Jason Horner,” she continued.

In order to convict, the prosecution “needs to prove that the defendant acted with the purpose of causing Sabrina’s death, or believed that that act would have that result,” Russell said.

She reminded the jurors of the medical examiner’s testimony that Schnoor died of a single intraoral gunshot wound to the head.

“You heard how the explosion ripped open her mouth, how there was soot on the back of her throat – and soot doesn’t travel far, maybe an inch, at most,” Russell said.

Though the State does not need to prove premeditation in the charges against Horner, “we submit that the evidence shows that the defendant’s actions that night, his words that night, indicate that his intent to kill Sabrina Schnoor was building over the night of May 29, 2023.”

During Horner’s initial interview with Owatonna Police investigators after his arrest June 4, 2023, he told them when he met up with Schnoor at Morehouse Park, she didn’t have a gun with her.

Instead, he claimed that Schnoor found the gun along the railroad tracks as they walked north from Morehouse Park.

“Somehow, when he turned around, she had this gun, and said she wanted to shoot something,” Russell said of Horner’s statement to police.

Horner denied ever seeing the gun before that, and denied touching the gun, saying the last time he had shot a gun was when he was about 11 years old.

“Despite this, the defendant gave a detailed description of this particular gun,” which had a wood stock and was an old double-barreled rifle that unlocked to switch barrels. He described the ammunition it used -- .22 caliber and .410 “little shotgun shells.”

Both types of ammunition were near Schnoor’s body when she was discovered.

Horner’s story about the gun changed throughout the course of the interview.

“Oh, actually he had seen the gun before, but wasn’t really sure when,” Russell summarized, “and then, toward the end of the interview, defendant states someone named Barter had tried to sell that firearm to him in the past.”

The jurors’ job, she said, “is to judge credibility, to weigh the evidence, to add things up. Ask yourself, does that make sense? That Sabrina Schnoor, who had been dropped off without a gun, just happened to be walking down the railroad tracks to find the exact same gun that the defendant states someone else had tried to sell him in the past.”

Horner is seen in surveillance video carrying the case he said held the gun, but told detectives he had given the gun back to Schnoor as they left the convenience store because “I was pissed off. I was gonna walk. Just walk home and leave her there.”

But, Russell said, “he didn’t just admit that they were arguing, that he was pissed, that at one point, he had pushed her… There was also surveillance footage that showed the defendant whip a bottle at Sabrina outside Casey’s … and footage of the defendant shoving Sabrina, shoving her head while they were walking on the tracks.”

During the initial interview, Horner said Schnoor slammed the butt of the gun against the embankment, causing it to discharge and strike her, because she was embarrassed. According to Horner, she was embarrassed because she had admitted to sleeping with someone.

The shooting was accidental, he said, and told detectives “I tried so hard to wake her up.”

The shorts and shoes Horner was wearing the night of the shooting were tested by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and found to have spots of DNA that was “most probably” Schnoor’s.

But, Russell asked the jurors, are the spots “consistent with the clothing and shoes of someone who just held a woman who, as the defendant described her, ‘watched her (expletive) face get blown off’?”

She recapped other evidence, from Horner’s actions after the shooting to resetting his phone – then hiding it.

“Two people went under that overpass: The defendant and Miss Schnoor,” Russell said. “One person left; the other person was left, bloody, their body distorted and alone… Jason Horner is guilty of intentional murder.”

Defense attorney Barry Cattadoris took members of law enforcement to task for not doing what Horner asked immediately upon his arrest: Check the forensics.

“Mr. Horner was later interviewed that morning, and he once again continually told law enforcement to do their job and check the forensics,” Cattadoris said.

At issue for the defense, he said throughout his closing statement, was a lack of evidence, or the lack of forensic testing.

Video from a MnDOT camera near the I-35 overpass under which Schnoor died totaled about 18 minutes, Cattadoris said, of the 24 hours between the time Schnoor died and the time she was discovered by friends.

“That’s roughly 1.2% of the time” that elapsed, he said; other video used in the case, from Casey’s General Store, Bosch and Cash Wise, totals about 10 minutes.

Horner’s statements to the detectives, Cattadoris said, was consistent with what was seen on the surveillance footage.

“He narrated his movements after leaving the scene … and we have a story that, as he describes it, is consistent with what law enforcement located,” Cattadoris said.

The location where Schnoor was found, he said, “is important to note that it is directly under I-35 … you can see we’re at a busy location and there’s a lot of human activity.”

The area was known by law enforcement to be a place for homeless people to camp, and for people to use drugs, Cattadoris said, and was within 20 feet of an active railroad track.

Some items at the scene were not tested, including a hair that was sent to the BCA.

A snack wrapper and a key were found on a board that Cattadoris said “appears to have been placed above Miss Schnoor after she passed away, which would seem to suggest there was evidence of value about who positioned the board,” through either DNA or fingerprints.

“The significant amount of evidence here seems to suggest that this location has lots of foot traffic, has lots of people coming and going,” he said.

Schnoor’s hands were bagged before she was sent to the medical examiner, but a test for gunshot residue was not done, “which could have corroborated Mr. Horner’s statement … or potentially ruled it out,” Cattadoris said.

Those facts matter, he said, because while many of the pieces of evidence had Schnoor’s DNA on them, several had a mixture of unrelated, unidentified DNA samples – and one male who was identified through a DNA database.

“Interestingly, there was no testimony by law enforcement about who (the man) was, if they investigated him in any way coming on to the scene,” Cattadoris said.

Though not suggesting an alternate perpetrator, what he drew from that was that “after Mr. Horner left the scene without the firearm, (the man) and some of the other unidentified people (who contributed DNA) potentially had contact with these items, had potentially been to the scene,” Cattadoris said.

The sloped embankment under the overpass “makes it probable” that Schnoor could have slammed the shotgun on the incline, “where individuals who were investigating the scene struggled to stand.”

The injuries to her face, Cattadoris said, “appear to have been caused by a shell coming in from the outside, not from the inside.”

The videos from Casey’s show two things, the defense said.

“Mr. Horner … is outside the gas station for a significant amount of time before Miss Schnoor comes out behind him,” Cattadoris said. “He’s not trying to drag her with him; she seems to be following him on that way out.”

He pointed out the two employees inside the store, “and it doesn’t look like she approached them,” beyond making her purchase. Law enforcement did not speak to the employees, Cattadoris said.

“Not only was she in the store alone (with the employees) for two and a half minutes, you look at the exterior video, and Mr. Horner’s really far away,” he said.

Horner’s concern about being blamed for Schnoor’s death, Cattadoris said, isn’t surprising.

“You heard him say he doesn’t have a happy history with the justice system … they’re going to blame the felon,” Cattadoris said. “It’s understandable that someone who doesn’t have a good experience would be scared.”

Instead, Horner asked them to check the forensics, his lawyer said, “and law enforcement didn’t have the courtesy to test those items that could show he didn’t have contact.

“The evidence here suggests that there was a great tragedy, but that doesn’t mean a crime was committed.”