A judge lowered Cavell Watkins’ bail after charges tied to the discovery of his roommate’s body advanced to county court.

BUTLER, Pa. — A 64-year-old Butler man accused of placing his dead roommate inside a stolen garbage container waived his preliminary hearing, allowing felony drug and misdemeanor abuse-of-corpse charges to move toward Butler County Common Pleas Court.

Cavell Watkins appeared before District Judge William Fullerton on July 13, two weeks after Butler City police found the remains of Philip Schiedel inside a large trash container in a North Main Street apartment. Watkins did not require prosecutors to present evidence at the preliminary stage. In exchange for the waiver, his bail was reduced from $100,000 to $25,000, according to a report from the Butler Eagle. The reduction did not resolve the charges or amount to a finding that Watkins committed them. It changed the conditions under which he remained held while the prosecution continued.

Public defender Patrick Casey requested the lower bail so Watkins could qualify for a work assignment in the Butler County Prison cafeteria, the newspaper reported. Watkins told the court that incarcerated people with bail set below $30,000 could be considered for prison jobs. Fullerton approved the request. Watkins remained in county custody after the hearing, and his formal arraignment was scheduled for 1 p.m. Sept. 1 in Butler County Common Pleas Court. An arraignment generally gives a defendant the opportunity to enter a plea and begins the next phase of pretrial proceedings.

The court development shifted the case beyond its initial account of a welfare check that became a death investigation. Police said officers went to an apartment in the 200 block of North Main Street on June 29 after receiving information that a deceased person might be inside. Watkins, who was known locally as “J.J.,” answered the door and allowed officers to conduct the check, according to reports based on the criminal complaint. Investigators entered the kitchen and noticed a large garbage container with a bottle of cologne resting on its lid.

Officers opened the container and found Schiedel’s body covered with bedding, police said. Early reports did not identify him because authorities were completing a formal identification and notifying relatives. Later reporting identified Schiedel as Watkins’ roommate. Police described the positioning of the remains in the charging documents, but the central allegation is that Watkins moved and concealed the body rather than promptly alerting emergency services. Authorities have not accused Watkins of homicide, and publicly available reports have not established that another person caused Schiedel’s death.

Watkins told investigators that he, Schiedel and a woman had been using crack cocaine at the apartment, according to accounts of the complaint. He said he and the woman left while Schiedel was alive and returned about 40 minutes later to find him unresponsive. A Butler Eagle report said Watkins told police he attempted CPR and left the apartment after concluding Schiedel was dead. He allegedly said he believed Schiedel had suffered an overdose and that fear led him to conceal the death rather than contact authorities. Those statements are allegations summarized from investigators’ records and have not been tested at trial.

Police said Watkins initially covered Schiedel with a sheet. Investigators allege that several days later, he walked to another property, took a commercial garbage container and wheeled it through downtown Butler to the apartment. Surveillance video obtained by local news outlets appeared to show Watkins moving a large container along East New Castle Street. The owner of Robert Stephens Custom Jewelers told the Butler Eagle that an employee had reported the store’s garbage container missing the previous Friday. He learned why it had disappeared only after police contacted him.

Steve Goslaw, the jewelry store owner, said his wife checked security footage and saw a man inspect the container before wheeling it away shortly before 7:30 a.m. He initially thought the container had been struck by a vehicle or misplaced. Goslaw contacted the disposal company for a replacement and was asked to document that the original had been stolen to avoid a $95 charge. Police later told him that investigators had recovered it from the nearby apartment with a body inside, the newspaper reported. No separate theft charge was identified in the reports reviewed for this article.

The arrest brought two different accusations into the same prosecution. Watkins was charged with abuse of a corpse, a misdemeanor, based on the alleged handling and concealment of Schiedel’s remains. He also was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, according to court and police accounts cited by local news organizations. Public reports have not fully described the evidence supporting the drug-delivery count, the amount of any substance recovered or whether laboratory testing has been completed. The existence of a charge does not establish guilt.

The cause and manner of Schiedel’s death remained important unresolved issues after Watkins waived the hearing. The Butler County Coroner’s Office responded when the body was discovered and conducted an autopsy. Police initially said the man appeared to have been dead for several days and that final toxicology results were pending. Watkins’ statement that he believed Schiedel overdosed was not an official cause-of-death determination. Authorities had not publicly announced final toxicology findings or reported evidence establishing exactly what caused Schiedel to become unresponsive.

That distinction limits what can be concluded from the charges filed so far. Abuse-of-corpse allegations concern the treatment of remains after death and do not by themselves prove responsibility for the death. The felony drug charge may become relevant to the broader investigation, but officials had not publicly alleged that Watkins supplied a substance that caused Schiedel’s death. No drug-delivery-resulting-in-death charge was listed in the available reports. Prosecutors could amend charges if additional evidence supports doing so, but no such development had been announced.

The discovery also unsettled people who work in the mixed commercial and residential stretch of downtown Butler. The apartment is above Pizza Joe’s, where workers saw officers behind the building and later watched authorities remove a large container. Jeff Eberhardt, whose wife owns the restaurant, told local television stations that he was shocked by the investigation, particularly because it unfolded directly above the business. Other neighbors questioned why emergency services were not called when Schiedel was first found unresponsive.

Those reactions are not evidence in the criminal case, which will turn on admissible testimony, physical evidence and the contents of police and court records. Watkins’ decision to waive the preliminary hearing also did not require a judge to decide whether each witness was credible. A preliminary hearing ordinarily gives prosecutors an opportunity to show that a crime probably occurred and that the defendant was probably involved. By waiving that proceeding, Watkins allowed the charges to be forwarded without that public presentation.

The prosecution now moves into the county-court stage, where Watkins will have the opportunity to challenge evidence, file motions and enter a plea. The defense position on the underlying allegations had not been detailed in the reports reviewed. Toxicology findings, the coroner’s final conclusions and additional information supporting the felony drug count had not been publicly released. Watkins is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Author note: Last updated July 28, 2026.