Overview
- Scheafe formally changed his plea in Maricopa County court on Friday and admitted to multiple charges, including first-degree murder.
- Under the agreement the Maricopa County Attorney's Office will not seek the death penalty and the judge outlined a natural-life sentence for the murder charge.
- The victim, 76-year-old Pastor Bill Schonemann, was found dead in his New River home in late April 2025 in a crucifixion-like position.
- Scheafe confessed to the FBI, told reporters he killed Schonemann for extremist religious reasons, and investigators say he had a list of other clergy he planned to target.
- The plea ends a long and unusual courtroom saga in which Scheafe represented himself, tried a no-contest plea that prosecutors opposed, and sought a life deal after his father and stepmother died in a plane crash earlier this year.