OVERPASS KILLING
Complaint: Woman died a day earlier
The man accused of killing Sabrina Lee Schnoor, 25, last week in Owatonna apparently lured her to meet him by claiming he was being sent to prison.
The complaint warrant filed against Jason Lee Horner, 38, outlines the case for 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.
He was arraigned Monday morning in Steele County District Court, where Judge Karen Duncan set conditional bail at $250,000.
Horner is due back in court June 29.
Schnoor was found dead nearly 24 hours after authorities say Horner shot her under an Interstate 35 overpass near the Steele County Administration building.
An autopsy indicated she’d been shot in the mouth; according to the medical examiner, the bullet cut through her spinal cord, killing her. Schnoor had also sustained a skull fracture and brain bleed before being shot.
Though she wasn’t found until May 30, the case began May 29, when Schnoor told a friend she needed to get a gun, because she was going to see Horner. Schnoor told the witness that Horner had a gun, the complaint says, “and she would feel safe with one” herself.
Horner was staying with a relative on Adams Avenue in Owatonna.
The friend advised Schnoor not to go visit Horner – whom she’d once been in a relationship with – because he’d allegedly physically assaulted her in the past and told her he would kill her.
Schnoor said she wanted to see Horner, though, because he told her he was headed to prison.
The friend then asked Schnoor to share her location using a cell phone app; Schnoor’s last text was sent about 8:30 p.m. May 29, saying she was in Owatonna. The last movement on the app was about 90 minutes later.
The next night, a group of Schnoor’s friends decided to meet at a business on State Avenue and walk to the spot where her phone last registered her location. They found her under the overpass.
Using surveillance footage from throughout the area, investigators established this timeline:
Schnoor and Horner are seen inside the nearby business at 9:35 p.m. May 29; he leaves the store, and she follows him about three minutes later after making a purchase.
The pair is then seen on multiple cameras walking west on the railroad tracks that run through the area – Horner at one point is seen pushing Schnoor in the head.
They are seen going under the overpass where the victim was found, the complaint says; Horner is seen “poking his head out” from the overpass, then walking alone back east toward Florence Avenue.
He walks back to the overpass – and an hour after Schnoor walked out of the nearby business, Horner emerges from under the overpass alone for the final time.
A relative saw him about two hours later; she said he seemed “off,” court documents say, and she knew he had done something, but he didn’t go into detail about what.
The day after Schnoor’s body was found, investigators were able to review text messages the relative had sent a friend. In them, the relative said Schnoor had been at their home on May 29, then indicated “something terrible had happened.”
The relative said she didn’t want to talk about it over text message, and at some point told the friend Horner had a gun, the document says.
Authorities executed a search warrant for the home Horner was sharing with the relative; clothing matching what Horner was seen wearing in the surveillance video was recovered. The shorts allegedly had what is described as “a dark-colored liquid” on them.
The murder charge carries a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison; the weapons charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, a $30,000 fine, or both.