Jacob John Audie was convicted of premeditated murder after shooting Michael Maurice Schille with a rifle that belonged to Schille.

SOUTH ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Minnesota man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing his 72-year-old roommate, ending a murder case that began with the defendant calling 911 and telling authorities he had shot the man inside the apartment they shared.

Jacob John Audie, 37, received the sentence Aug. 25 in Dakota County District Court from Judge Kathryn Iverson. Six days earlier, Iverson found Audie guilty of premeditated first-degree murder and intentional second-degree murder in the April 11, 2025, death of Michael Maurice Schille. The verdict followed a stipulated facts trial, in which the judge considered an agreed evidentiary record rather than hearing the case through a conventional jury trial. The first-degree murder conviction carried the most severe consequence in the case: life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.

The conviction marked the final stage of a case that grew more serious after prosecutors first charged Audie with second-degree intentional murder. A Dakota County grand jury later indicted him in September 2025 on first-degree premeditated murder as well as the second-degree count. That added charge reflected prosecutors’ position that Schille’s death was not only intentional but planned beforehand. Court records later cited in local reporting described evidence that went beyond the physical scene of the shooting, including a handwritten letter and statements Audie was reported to have made about conversations with Schille before his death.

The case began shortly before 9 p.m. on April 11, 2025. Authorities said Audie called 911 at about 8:48 p.m. and reported that he had shot Schille inside their apartment in South St. Paul. South St. Paul police officers responding to the call found Audie outside the building in the parking lot. He had a phone in his hand and complied with officers before being taken into custody. Inside the residence, police found Schille on a couch in a back bedroom. Responding medics pronounced him dead at the scene. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office later determined that Schille died from a gunshot wound to the head and classified the death as a homicide.

Investigators documented several pieces of evidence throughout the apartment. Authorities said they found an AR-style rifle in the living room, rifle magazines on a kitchen table and a table in the back bedroom, and an empty carbine casing on the couch near Schille. A live round was also reported near the rifle. According to the initial criminal complaint, Schille was still holding a television remote when officers found him. Audie told investigators that the rifle belonged to Schille. He also described unloading the weapon after the shooting, placing the magazine on a table and removing a round before calling authorities.

Audie told investigators that he and Schille had lived together for roughly one to two years and that he helped care for Schille and clean the apartment, according to court records and the county attorney’s account of the case. The relationship between the two men became an important part of subsequent reporting because Schille depended on Audie for some assistance inside the home. The original second-degree murder charge did not publicly establish a motive for the shooting. Schille’s children said shortly after his death that they were trying to understand why their father had been killed.

Additional court material reported as the prosecution developed described a four-page handwritten letter found in the apartment. The letter was titled “Michael’s forgiveness,” according to reporting that cited court records. Audie was reported to have told investigators that he wrote it. The same records described a discussion between the men several days before the killing in which the subject of ending Schille’s life came up and Schille indicated that he was not ready. Audie was also reported to have described acting with an intent to end Schille’s life and suffering. Those records became significant as prosecutors pursued the first-degree premeditated murder count returned by the grand jury.

The details of that evidence stood in contrast to the uncertainty that surrounded the case in its earliest days. When prosecutors filed the first charge on April 14, 2025, the publicly released complaint focused largely on the 911 call, what officers found inside the apartment and Audie’s statements after his arrest. Bail was initially set at $1 million without conditions or $750,000 with conditions. The Dakota County Attorney’s Office credited the South St. Paul Police Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension with investigating the death. By September, the grand jury had added the premeditated first-degree murder charge that would ultimately determine Audie’s sentence.

Schille was 72 and lived in South St. Paul. His children described him publicly as a Navy veteran who had received an honorable discharge. Reporting based on statements from his daughters said he had health problems, though the available public record does not establish that those conditions authorized or justified anyone else to end his life. Family members said after the killing that they had expected to have more time with him and were struggling to understand what had happened. An obituary described Schille as a father and grandfather who enjoyed being on the water, camping and riding his Harley. He left behind two daughters and two granddaughters.

The medical examiner’s findings provided the formal determination about Schille’s death. The office identified the location as an apartment on 12th Avenue North in South St. Paul, listed the date of injury and death as April 11, 2025, and ruled that the cause was a gunshot wound to the head. The manner of death was homicide. Those findings did not by themselves determine criminal responsibility, but they became part of a case in which Audie acknowledged shooting Schille and prosecutors later alleged that the killing was premeditated.

The procedural path to conviction differed from a typical jury trial. Audie ultimately proceeded through a stipulated facts trial, and Iverson found him guilty on Aug. 19, 2026, of both charges contained in the indictment. The Dakota County Attorney’s Office announced the convictions and, six days later, the sentence. The outcome transformed a case that had begun with a second-degree murder accusation into a final judgment for premeditated first-degree murder. Because the conviction carries life without the possibility of parole, Audie’s sentence does not include a future parole eligibility date.

Following sentencing, the Dakota County Attorney’s Office said Audie remained at the Dakota County Jail while awaiting transfer to the Minnesota Department of Corrections. The sentence closed the principal trial-level proceedings more than 16 months after Schille was killed. No further change in Audie’s custody status or post-conviction litigation was announced in the sentencing release.

Author note: Last updated Sept. 30, 2026.