Michael Maurice Schille was killed inside the South St. Paul apartment he shared with a man who said he helped care for him.
SOUTH ST. PAUL, Minn. — Michael Maurice Schille was a 72-year-old Navy veteran, father and grandfather who shared his apartment with a man who told police he helped care for him. That roommate, Jacob John Audie, is now serving a life sentence without parole for Schille’s premeditated murder.
The relationship between the two men gives the case a significance that extends beyond the physical evidence recovered after the April 11, 2025, shooting. Audie told investigators he and Schille had lived together for a year or two and that he helped care for Schille and clean the apartment. Schille’s daughters said their father had health problems. Yet court material later cited in reporting indicated that when the men discussed ending Schille’s life several days before the shooting, Schille said he was not ready. A grand jury ultimately accused Audie of premeditation, and Judge Kathryn Iverson found him guilty on that charge in August 2026.
Schille’s family described him publicly in the aftermath of his death while investigators and prosecutors built the criminal case. His children said he had served in the Navy and received an honorable discharge. They expressed shock that he had been killed and said they believed they still had time to make memories with him. An obituary said Schille enjoyed being on the water, camping and the prospect of riding his Harley. He left two daughters and two granddaughters. Those details became part of the public account of a man whose final moments were otherwise known largely through police reports and court documents.
The official account of his death begins at the apartment on 12th Avenue North. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Schille suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head on April 11, 2025, and classified the death as homicide. South St. Paul officers found him on a couch in a back bedroom after arriving shortly before 9 p.m. Accounts of the criminal complaint said a television remote was still in his hand. Medics pronounced him dead there. Police recovered an AR-style rifle that authorities said belonged to Schille, along with magazines, an empty casing and a live round at different locations inside the residence.
Audie had already identified himself to authorities before officers entered the apartment. At about 8:48 p.m., prosecutors said, he called 911 and reported that he had shot his roommate. Police encountered him outside the apartment building in the parking lot, where he complied and was taken into custody. Audie later told investigators he had fired Schille’s own rifle. The complaint said he described removing the magazine and taking a round from the chamber after the shooting before calling 911. The physical items recovered by officers were consistent with the scene investigators documented in the charging papers.
Within days, prosecutors charged Audie with second-degree intentional murder. The initial case did not publicly establish a clear motive, and Schille’s children said they were still searching for an explanation. At that stage, the known record established an admitted shooting, a dead roommate, a shared home and a caregiving relationship. Audie was jailed after his arrest, and a judge set bail at $1 million without conditions or $750,000 with conditions. The South St. Paul Police Department investigated the case with assistance credited to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
The prosecution took on a different character as additional evidence entered the court record. Reporting based on court documents described a four-page handwritten letter found in the apartment, titled “Michael’s forgiveness.” Audie reportedly acknowledged writing it. The court material also described the earlier conversation with Schille about ending his life. According to those records, Schille’s response was that he was not ready. Audie was later reported to have described the shooting as an act intended to end Schille’s life and suffering. Prosecutors treated the available evidence as supporting a more serious allegation than the original second-degree murder count.
In September 2025, a Dakota County grand jury indicted Audie on one count of first-degree premeditated murder and one count of second-degree intentional murder. The first-degree charge changed the stakes of the case. Under the charge brought by prosecutors, a conviction for premeditated first-degree murder carried mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The indictment came about five months after the killing and replaced the uncertainty surrounding whether prosecutors would allege advance planning with a formal accusation that Audie had acted with premeditation.
Schille’s health was mentioned publicly by his family, but the court record reported by news organizations did not show that he had consented to being killed. The reported conversation shortly before his death pointed in the opposite direction: Schille was said to have indicated he was not ready. That detail became especially important because Audie’s own characterization of the act referenced Schille’s suffering. In a criminal prosecution, a defendant’s description of his purpose does not by itself resolve what happened or make the conduct lawful. The court ultimately judged the case under Minnesota’s homicide laws and found the killing to be premeditated murder.
The final adjudication came through a stipulated facts trial rather than a jury verdict after live testimony. Iverson considered the agreed evidentiary record and on Aug. 19, 2026, found Audie guilty of both first-degree premeditated murder and second-degree intentional murder. The process still required the judge to determine whether the evidence established the charged crimes. Six days later, the judge imposed the punishment attached to the first-degree conviction: life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.
For Schille’s family, the legal resolution came more than a year after the abrupt loss they described in the first days following his death. The prosecution established criminal responsibility and secured the state’s most severe murder sentence, but a verdict could not answer every personal question raised by a killing inside a home shared by a person receiving help and the man providing some of that help. Publicly available records establish what Audie did, how prosecutors charged it and how the court ruled; they do not provide a complete account of every aspect of the men’s private relationship.
The sentence was announced Aug. 25 by Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena. Her office said Audie, then 37, remained in custody at the Dakota County Jail awaiting transfer to the Minnesota Department of Corrections. The life-without-parole sentence means there is no scheduled parole eligibility date. The transfer to state custody was the next confirmed step after a case that began in the apartment Schille and Audie shared and ended with a first-degree murder judgment.
Author note: Last updated Sept. 30, 2026.