#81 - Courtney Schulhoff

Just like Romeo and Juliet …

Courtney Schulhoff was a 16-year-old in Altamonte, FL. She had just dropped out of high school, but was making an attempt to earn her GED.

Michael Morin was 5 years older, and on probation for car theft. He met Courtney at a local dog track (not sure what a 16-year-old was doing there), and the two hit it off.

Stephen Schulhoff was Courtney’s dad, who she lived with after her parents got divorced. He  objected to her dating Morin. According to Courtney, he was also physically abusive

Solution? Why not bludgeon dad to death with a baseball bat?

After the dirty deed was done, the couple were discovered by Stephen’s girlfriend, one Elaine Bouck. She also came upon Courtney and Michael as they fled the apartment.

Though it seemed that it was Morin who had actually done the killing, Courtney’s part in it was very much in the air. She initially claimed to have nothing to do with it, but eventually copped to giving Morin the baseball bat, waiting calmly for him to finish the deed, then helping him clean up later. Morin, conveniently, claimed to have blacked out.

Courtney was the first to go to trial, and prosecutors effectively showed her to have been the mastermind. Ineligible for the death penalty because she was only 16, she got life without parole instead.

Morin went next. He admitted he was the one who did it, and expressed some genuine regret. That, and the fact that Courtney gave a deposition where claimed to have been the perpetrator, netted Morin life as well (with that later being reduced to 40 years).

Courtney has been a popular interview subject on TV. The case has also been featured on Snapped.

#82 - Julene Simko *

Perhaps they just needed a safe word …

This one starts with a frantic 911 call from Julene Simko. Turns out her husband, Jeremy, had just been shot by some unknown intruder. Or was he? 

Julene claimed she was sleeping in another room (Jeremy snored) when she was awakened by a loud noise. Going to Jeremy, she found him lying on the bed, covered in blood and unresponsive. Hearing something in the hallway, Julene grabbed a pistol and fired two random shots toward whomever or whatever might be there. 

At the same time, though, police found no sign of forced entry, nothing on the security cameras, no reports of barking dogs (the Simkos had 4), and no foreign DNA. The same issues would resurface days later when Julene claimed the house had been broken into (she had been staying at her mom’s in the interim).

The police, however, moved no further. And that’s the way the case rested for another 4 whole years.

Revisiting the evidence at that time, the cops were struck by the unusual relationship between Julene and Jeremy. Pics, videos and even a 14-page master/slave contract showed that the couple were seriously into BDSM. Julene claimed that the relationship was strictly consensual, but there were, however, hints of abuse. Did Julene snap? She had been sexually abused as a child …

At the same time, a nurse who treated Julene after the shooting came forward claiming she thought she heard Julene say she had shot Jeremy.  The cops also had experts analyze the 911 call, with those experts finding 10 “markers of a guilty caller.”

Though the evidence was still very circumstantial, Julene was finally indicted. Surprisingly, she opted for a bench trial (i.e., before only a judge, and with no jury). The judge would subsequently find Julene guilty, giving her a sentence of 28 years to life.

Would a jury trial have gotten resulted in a guilty verdict as well? Was it Julene who actually pulled the trigger?

#83 - Elisa McNabney & Sarah Dutra *

Our first two-fer … 

Elisa McNabney (r) and Sarah Dutra (l) worked together at a law firm. Elisa was married to the owner, Larry McNabney, and worked as the COO. Sarah was a part-time secretary.

The two hit it off big time. To such an extent, in fact, that they conspired to knock off Larry.

Now, Larry wasn’t the nicest guy in the world. He was a notorious drunk, and may have been abusive as well.

Elisa

At least he seemed to be forgiving though. Elisa, before she was Mrs. McNabney, had embezzled thousands of dollars from him. Not only did he forgive her, he asked her to marry him (his 5th, her 3rd).

Turns out Elisa, though, was hiding a pretty checkered past from her new hubby. In fact, she had a 113-page criminal record, had used 38 different aliases (her birth name was Laren Sims), and had actually met Larry when she cut off an ankle monitor & fled to Vegas. (They would move to Sacramento after Elisa’s little embezzling to-do.)

Purely for monetary needs, Elisa and Sarah decided to do Larry in. In particular, they injected him with some horse tranquilizer (Larry was one of those horsey types). Elisa did the injecting, and Sarah just kind of helped out.

Not knowing quite what to do with him, they put him on ice (literally) for a few months. While Larry cooled, they made up all sort of stories about where he was – he was in rehab, he had moved to Costa Rica, he had joined a cult … At the same time, they helped themselves to half a million of the law firm’s assets.

Finally, they buried him in a vineyard. Not too soon after, though, he was discovered by some workers. 

And that was Elisa’s cue to take her teen-aged daughter, a little more money, and go on the lam. On the other side of the country, in Florida, her daughter eventually turned her in. In prison there, Elisa hung herself, confessing to everything in a suicide note, implicating Sarah as well. 

Sarah

Sarah would get 12 years for voluntary manslaughter and being an accessory to murder. She’s out now, but keeping a very low profile. God only knows what she’s up to.

The case has appeared on Snapped, Dateline, Deadly Wives & Evil Stepmothers. It also inspired a TV movie, Lies My Mother Told Me.

#84 - Shanna Gardner *

It sounded like she had everything …

Shanna Gardner was the daughter of multi-millionaire Mormons. She then married Jared Bridegan, an exec at Microsoft, and had two children with him.

Unfortunately, she was caught cheating with her personal trainer, and she and Jared divorced. This presented Shanna with two problems. First, there were the kids. Second was a trust fund that was somehow tied up with Jared.

Cue Mario Fernandez, an ex-military type (with a dishonorable discharge for assault.) He and Shannan would marry, then plan a hit together on poor Jared.

The hit was an ambush, with someone placing a tire in the middle of the road right before Jared arrived on the scene. When he got out of his car to remove it, someone jumped out and plugged him.

Evidence pointed to one Henry Tenon, a renter at one of Fernandez’s properties, who had a long list of arrests. When brought in for questioning, Tenon would sing like a bird. 

The trial is set for August of this year, with Jose Baez, who got Casey Anthony her acquittal, representing Shanna. Stay tuned.