HORNER MURDER TRIAL UPDATE: DAY 4

Dr. Ross Reichard, the chief medical examiner for the Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiners’ Office, confirmed Friday that Sabrina Schnoor’s cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head.

Schnoor was 25 when her body was found May 30, 2023, under an Interstate 35 overpass in Owatonna, near the Steele County Administration Building.

Reichard, who performed the autopsy on her body on June 1, 2023, provided testimony on the fourth day of Jason Lee Horner’s murder trial in Steele County District Court.

Horner, 41, has pleaded not guilty to one count each 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.

His defense claims her death was accidental.

A forensic pathologist, Reichard said in assessing the wound track and the projectile-associated injuries, he determined the trajectory of the gunshot was moving from front to back, slightly right to left, and slightly upward.

Photos of Schnoor taken during the medical exam were shown to jurors.

Calling the wound “intraoral,” Reichard also described photos that showed a skull fracture and a fracture to Schnoor’s cervical spine, as well as the cup of the shotgun shell that took her life.

The manner of death was homicide, Reichard said, a medical term as opposed to a legal definition, “because it’s my opinion that she died at the hands of another individual … based on the totality of the autopsy report and the investigative findings, photographs (of the scene), etc.”

There were other wounds on Schnoor’s face, which Reichard said were caused by the proximity of the gun to her mouth at the time it fired, causing soft tissue damage around the entrance of the projectile.

Results from toxicology tests indicated the presence of amphetamine and methamphetamine, his report said.

But Reichard could not definitively tell the angle of the barrel of the gun in relation to Schnoor’s face or just how close it was, he admitted to defense attorney Steve Bergeson, or her body position at the time she was struck.

Also unknown is “the circumstances around the time of the (gun’s) discharge, correct? You can’t tell if people were hugging or struggling,” Bergeson asked.

He asked Reichard if people “can kill themselves accidentally, for a variety of reasons? If the gun were slammed, or dropped?”

Reichard said it would depend on the nature of the weapon, adding that it is “extremely uncommon,” such as the occasional hunting accident.

Bergeson talked about “rocky, sloped” surfaces, apparently referring to the area where Schnoor’s body was found.

Katlyn Hook, a forensic scientist with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s firearms section, said in testimony Friday morning that “it’s possible for any firearm to potentially accidentally discharge.”

It would require “some sort of malfunction with the firearm itself,” such as a faulty safety, she said.

The age of the firearm itself is just one aspect, Hook said. Others include its maintenance, frequency of use and exposure to the elements.

The bullet recovered from Schnoor’s body was “consistent” with one of the other shells from the bandolier found nearby. There were eight live shotshells in the holder, Hook said, but they were not all the same.

Also testifying Friday were Ginnette Bayardo, Horner’s sister, and Kailee Willert, who knew both Schnoor and Horner before the shooting.

Bayardo acknowledged she received a text message from Horner shortly after midnight on May 30, 2023, in which he told her he loved her and apologized for not being “a big brother that (he) should have.”

Concerned, she went to the apartment on Adams Avenue in Owatonna that Horner shared with Angela Herplinck, but he refused to tell her what was wrong.

Bayardo told law enforcement a couple of days later that Horner was angry, and told her he was “going to (expletive) leave.”

Friday, however, Bayardo told Assistant Attorney General Mary Russell that “I read the transcripts, but I still don’t remember most of that interview. I wasn’t in a great place.”

She told defense attorney Barry Cattadoris that she had smoked marijuana before and after her interview with law enforcement, and had also taken her prescription medication that day.

Willert, who lived in Albert Lea at the time, said Horner and Herplinck came to the home she shared with her husband late the night of May 30, 2023.

He “seemed fine,” Willert said, and had brought several garbage bags that contained clothing and camping items. She, her husband and Horner went to get gas in Willert’s vehicle, “and he asked to go as far south as possible.”

They returned to Willert’s house for directions, but Horner left a few hours later with someone named Krissy. He returned the afternoon of May 31, when Willert told him she’d seen a news story about a body being found in Owatonna.

“He said to me, ‘they won’t believe I didn’t do it,’ and I said, ‘what?’ and he repeated what he said,” Willert told the jury. “I asked him what, and he said, ‘I was there.’ I asked him where, and he said, ‘Sabrina.’”

Willert said she was shocked, but hadn’t connected Schnoor to the body found, because Schnoor lived in Faribault.

Willert told Russell that Horner made no comment about a gun or why he had been with Schnoor.

“He said he didn’t do it, so I asked him why he didn’t stay there and call the cops … and he said he got scared,” Willert said.

She described Horner as “his quiet, normal self. Reserved.”

Willert, her husband and Horner ordered pizza later that day, then Horner left again with Krissy. She didn’t see him again.

A search warrant executed at Willert’s home in Albert Lea turned up what authorities said was Horner’s cell phone, wrapped in aluminum foil, taped with black electrical tape and hidden in a cinder block in the basement.

* For the second straight day, Judge Joseph Bueltel excused a juror suspected of sleeping during testimony. The juror denied falling asleep, and said “I don’t believe so,” when asked if they had missed any testimony.

Unlike Thursday, Cattadoris asked Bueltel to dismiss the juror, who was continuing to go to work while serving on the jury.

“It’s concerning that nearly all of the testimony this morning from our BCA firearms examiner has been her testifying in relation to a large amount of exhibits” that were shown on the screen in the courtroom, he said.

“Given what happened yesterday, I was a little extra sensitive, and was watching the jury,” Bueltel said, “and I did cue on” the juror.

“He was quite tired and his head was rocking back and forth,” the judge said. “This gets back to the issue of the fairness of the proceedings… We’ve got to have people paying attention … and I can’t in good conscience” keep the juror.

Testimony continues Monday at 8:30 a.m.