In August 2020 Steven J. Schneider was arrested on a felony charge of strangling and battering his daughter after he’d been drinking. The felony charge was dropped, Schneider was found guilty of domestic battery but signed a deferred prosecution agreement, a form of probation with the added advantage that the remaining charge would be dropped if he respected the terms of the agreement for six months. He did.
In late May Schneider was arrested again for violating an injunction and stalking a 57-year-old woman. In late July he again signed a deferred prosecution agreement, again agreeing to take an anger management class and not violate the terms of the agreement–including not committing any crimes–for its six-month duration. He had no-contact orders from his previous arrests, requiring him to live away from his previous residence.
On Thursday the agreement was revoked. Schneider was charged with attempted first-degree murder after allegedly attacking his 29-year-old roommate with a hammer and a knife and repeatedly stabbing him. The roommate survived. the incident was witnessed by the roommate’s mother.
The incident took place at 132 Berkshire Lane in Palm Coast on Wednesday night. The alleged victim called 911. Both his hands were “bandaged heavily and bleeding profusely” when Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene. He also had several lacerations on his left shoulder, and bruises and abrasions on his face and his back. “Large amounts of blood were located throughout the residence.”
The alleged victim was in one of the house’s bedrooms with his mother, watching television. The lights were off. According to both the 29-year-old man and his 68-year-old mother, Schneider, 63, walked into the room and started rummaging through the closet, which did not belong to him. His roommate asked him what he was doing. Allegedly unprovoked, Schneider then lunged at him with a knife with a 12-inch blade in one hand and a hammer in the other, knocking the man’s mother as he did so.
The alleged victim fought him off but was struck by the hammer and stabbed several times before he fled from the house to call 911. The man’s mother witnessed the whole attack. The man was taken to a local hospital for treatment. Schneider also fled the scene.
Deputies located Schneider’s vehicle on Birchfield Place a little after 9 p.m., in a vacant lot. They found blood inside, but not Schneider. They launched a ground and air search, including a K-9 unit, but were not successful. A ground and air search. A sheriff’s release states he was “ultimately located,” but it doesn’t say how, aside from citing “investigative techniques.”
“This was remarkable investigative work by everyone involved,” Sheriff Staly was quoted as saying in the release. “The Real Time Crime Center, digital forensics technology, and good police work played a key role in helping us find this guy. Through a variety of investigative measures, our detectives were able to safely arrest a dangerous subject and put him behind bars. Thankfully the injuries the victim sustained do not appear life-threatening and we hope he will make a full recovery.”
Schneider was booked at the Flagler County jail, where he’s being held on $100,000 bond. The charge he faces is a first degree felony which carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.
The Geode says
Just show that photo to the jury and save us the few days of going through an actual trial…
The dude says
Florida man never disappoints…
Mythoughts says
Lets see if once again the prosecutors give him another deal and once again he lies and says he won’t do it again. What is wrong with the judges and prosectors in this county, they seem to allow the criminals to control the court system. Start doing your job you are paid for by taxpayers money.
A.j says
Attack get charges dropped. Repeat it again. Repeat it again. The 29 yr. old could have lost his life. Thank God he didn’t get killed. How is his mother doing? The 63 yr. old attacked her too. Hiw many times should a person committ a crime before he is stopped. Now my racist part. I can only imagine if he were Africsn American he would be in jail or a loooooonnnngggg time prison sentence. White men do what they want to do and get away with it. What a system we live in. Pro white anti people of color. Juat saying.
Two Systems says
Attempted 1st degree murder, bludgening with a hammer and stabbing with a knife. Has violated no contact orders in the past. Clearly unhinged. So why is there a bond at all? $100k = $10k in a bond. Why is the opportunity to walk our streets even remotely presented as an option???
Oh wait, I see why. White man.
Red Eye says
63 years old and looks like he’s 90. That people, is what drinking heavy will do to you .
ASF says
This guy has gotten enough chances to get his act together. He either won’t or can’t.
The public at large needs to be protected from him.
Ray W. says
As all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, almost every defendant receives a bond amount upon arrest. Only a few crimes carry an initial No Bond designation. A bond schedule issued by the chief judge determines initial bond amounts that law enforcement personnel apply to each offense listed in their complaint affidavits throughout all four counties of the 7th Judicial Circuit. Bond schedules exist to provide uniformity throughout the circuit. For example, a person arrested for stealing hot dogs at Publix will have a $500 bond, which can be adjusted at First Appearances. Bond schedules have been around for a long time. In this case, the $100,000 bond is the monetary amount established for a first-degree violent felony offenses, though I retired several years ago and haven’t looked at the bond schedule since then.
If a defendant posts bond, the monetary amount issue never makes it to a First Appearances hearing, which is almost always held within 24 hours after the arrest, as constitutionally required. If the defendant cannot post bond, the First Appearances judge can use the criteria established in the Rules of Criminal Procedure and various applicable bond statutes to keep the bond as initially set or raise or lower the bond. As an example, decades ago, a circuit court judge raised the bond on a charge of possession of less than a pound of cannabis to $1.5 million, spontaneously evoking the defense attorney’s outburst in the courtroom that the trial judge was insane. While the defense attorney was reprimanded by the Florida Bar for his outburst, the 5th DCA quickly overturned the newly raised bond amount and ordered the case to be reassigned to a new judge for a new bond hearing. As an aside, that same defense attorney was also reprimanded by the Florida Bar for commenting in court that Volusia’s then newly-created Domestic Violence court was a “henhouse hell.” Oh, well! I wondered at the time if that talented yet self-destructive attorney’s childhood years spent growing up in upstate New York made him familiar with that phrase. Of course, he may have watched too many episodes of Foghorn Leghorn as a child.
The rules permit the State to ask for hearing time on a motion to revoke bond, at which a judge can revoke an already posted bond, but only under very limited circumstances.
Several years ago, a Sarasota newspaper published an in-depth analysis of case outcomes based on race and it offered an ugly portrayal of implicit and explicit racial bias in Florida’s criminal justice system, though to be fair to judges most cases plea out to agreed-upon sentences that are presented to judges, who commonly accept what the prosecution and defense attorneys announce to the court, with the defendant accepting the sentence. The bond schedules predate the newspaper’s analysis, and the bond schedule is an effort to ensure equal treatment of all individuals who are arrested for crimes, regardless of gender, race, age or medical condition.