CASE OF INTEREST

 

Date: March 8, 2006

Case: People v. Jon Gary Schnabel
         Sacramento County Superior Court, Docket 04F09537

Contact: Nancy C. Ramirez
             Deputy District Attorney
             Special Assault & Child Abuse Unit
             Telephone: (916) 874-7373


District Attorney Jan Scully announced today that Judge Michael W. Sweet sentenced Jon Gary Schnabel to a term of 375 years to life in state prison following jury verdicts of guilt on 15 felony counts of committing a Lewd Act upon a Child Under Age 14. The jury also made a special finding that Schnabel suffered a prior conviction in 1963 for committing a Lewd Act upon a Child Under Age 14 -- subjecting Schnabel to California’s Habitual Sexual Offender sentencing scheme.

In the prior case from 1963, Schnabel was convicted in Sacramento County of sexually abusing a 7-year-old neighbor girl, having the child masturbate and then orally copulate him. In the current case, investigation by the Citrus Heights Police Department revealed that Schnabel committed crimes in Sacramento and Placer Counties from 1995 to 1998 against three girls between the ages of 7-12. Schnabel gained access to these children through neighbors and real estate clients in Citrus Heights and Granite Bay; after gaining the trust of each victim, Schnabel tricked each child into “helping him” apply medication to his penis by masturbating and orally copulating him on multiple occasions.

Deputy District Attorney Nancy C. Ramirez stated, “Jon Gary Schnabel is a manipulative child molester who stole the innocence of multiple children in both the Sacramento and Placer County communities. He never showed remorse for his crimes and he never accepted responsibility for the many young lives he affected. The Court’s sentence of 375 years to life in prison will keep this sexual predator behind bars for the rest of his natural life so that no other trusting child may ever cross his dangerous path.”