Husband convicted of murder in 10-year-old case of missing wife

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Husband convicted of murder in 10-year-old case of missing wife

Friday, June 9, 2000

By TRACY JOHNSON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A Mill Creek man was convicted yesterday of killing his wife, who disappeared 10 years ago. The case marked one of the few times in Washington state history when murder has been proven without a body.

King County prosecutors instead gathered reams of circumstantial evidence showing that Steven Sherer battered his wife and threatened to kill her if she left him.

After five days of grueling deliberations, the eight-woman, four-man jury found Sherer, 38, guilty of first-degree murder.

For the victim's family and friends, the verdict was long-delayed relief.

Since Jami Sherer vanished, her mother has fumbled for answers, planted roses in remembrance and tried to put on a brave face for a young grandson who lost his mother.

Yesterday, Judy Hagel finally got the conclusion she had poured all her energy and hope into for an excruciating decade.

She has spent years with the unthinkable belief that Steven Sherer killed her daughter and hid her someplace no one could ever find her.

"I always thought that he had, but there's always that little inkling of hope," Hagel said yesterday after leaving the courtroom.

At sentencing, prosecutors will ask that Sherer spend more than the standard 22 to 32 years in prison, in part because he concealed his wife's body, robbing her family of any true conclusion.

As the verdict was announced, Steven Sherer's mother, Sherri Schielke, covered her mouth, then buried her face in her husband's head and sobbed.

Sherer, wearing a wrinkled suit and with a few days' stubble, rose from his chair and asked how he could be found guilty of something he didn't do.

Then he turned to his wife's family and snapped: "When Jami does turn up, you can all rot in hell."

After the outburst, prosecutors persuaded Judge Anthony Wartnik to boost Sherer's $1 million bail to $5 million. A sentencing date will likely be set for next month.

Without Jami's body, a murder weapon or an eyewitness, prosecutors worked to compile a mound of circumstantial evidence to prove Sherer's guilt.

"There's a reason the law says that circumstantial evidence can be as compelling as direct evidence," said Senior Deputy Prosecutor Marilyn Brenneman.

Sherer's attorney, Peter Mair, said he would appeal.

During the monthlong trial Mair asked that the case be dismissed because prosecutors could not prove how or whether Jami Sherer died -- let alone that Steven Sherer killed her with premeditation.

Mair tried to explain Sherer's courtroom rage.

"He was confused, perhaps blinded, by the fact that he didn't do it," the defense lawyer said.

Sherer said he was relieved when King County Jail guards told him the jury was about to announce its verdict.

"I was happy. I thought the truth would come out," he said last night from the jail. "I didn't think this was possible."

Jami Sherer disappeared from her Redmond home on Sept. 30, 1990, after phoning her mother to say she was coming over with lunch.

Hagel testified that her daughter, a devoted mother and a Microsoft secretary, had finally summoned the courage to escape her abusive marriage.

But the petite, brown-eyed woman never made it to her mother's house, and her Mazda RX7 later turned up in a church parking lot in Shoreline.

Ever since, even as the missing-person case sat for years with few clues, Hagel fought for answers. She hired a private detective, who merely made off with her money, and she pressed Redmond police to keep at it.

"For Jami, I could not just ignore it and let it go away," she said.

Police reopened the investigation several years ago, and prosecutors finally agreed in January that there was enough evidence to charge Sherer.

In Washington, "missing body" murder convictions are rare. In one notorious 1995 case on Lopez Island, Ruth Neslund was found guilty of killing her husband and burning his body.

In the Sherer trial, jurors heard testimony that he threatened to kill his wife if she ever left him, and that he later confided to his sister that he had "done something very bad."

One juror said afterward that the case was an emotional roller coaster.

"It was a very hard case all the way through," said the woman, who asked not to be identified. "It was very emotional for me. I'm just hoping that I can sleep tonight and get on with my life."

At the end of the first day of deliberations, the juror said eight members of the panel favored a first-degree murder conviction. Three were not sure, and one thought Sherer was not guilty.

In the end, the lack of a body

was overridden by the range of oth

er evidence prosecutors submit

ted.

"They said circumstantial evidence is just as important as any other type," the juror said.

The toughest question for the jury was the issue of premeditation.

"We didn't know, and that really bothered a lot of people," the juror said. "But after going over all of

the testimony, we finally agreed on that."

The verdict brought overwhelming relief to Hagel, who has reluctantly maintained a strained relation

ship with Sherer because she has custody of the son he had with her daughter.

Hagel said she tried to shelter the boy, now 12, from the disturbing details, but he always seemed to understand.

She once told him that his dad may have done something bad to