Joel Schmeiderer

Case overview

Joel Schmeiderer was convicted of first degree premeditated murder for killing fellow inmate Tom Harris at the South Central Correctional Center in Clifton, Tennessee. He was sentenced to death for the murder of Tom Harris after a sentencing hearing. Before the Tom Harris murder, he had been serving a life sentence for murder and other crimes.

Timeline

• July 11, 2001 — Tom Harris was strangled to death in his cell at the South Central Correctional Center in Clifton, Tennessee.
• December 1999 — Schmeiderer pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.
• August 1999 — A jury convicted Schmeiderer of first degree premeditated murder and two counts of attempted first degree premeditated murder.
• May 15, 2004 — Schmeiderer was sentenced to death.
• February 2004 — Schmeiderer was baptized.
• September 24, 2010 — The Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the death sentence and set his execution date for September 13, 2011.
• September 13, 2011 — Execution date set by the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Background

Schmeiderer was an inmate at the South Central Correctional Center in Clifton, Tennessee. He had previously been convicted of first degree premeditated murder and other crimes, for which he was sentenced to life in prison in 1999. While awaiting trial on that case, he had escaped once and tried to escape another time.

During the sentencing phase for the Tom Harris murder, the defense presented evidence that Schmeiderer had a “rotten childhood,” and alleged a recent religious conversion. The defense also presented testimony and records to support mitigation, including that he suffered from a cognitive emotional disorder resulting from “extreme psychological abuse,” and that he never received recommended treatment for drug addiction after evaluation at a psychiatric facility when he entered the juvenile justice system.

The offence

Killing of Tom Harris

Tom Harris, an inmate at the South Central Correctional Center in Clifton, Tennessee, was strangled to death in his cell. His cell was located on the second floor of a “pod.” The cells belonging to Joel Richard Schmeiderer and his codefendant, Charles Sanderson, were on the first floor in that pod, and inmates were permitted access to cells within their pod.

Tom Harris was last seen alive in his cell at approximately 7:00 p.m. when Jeremy Means, a correctional officer, delivered an educational pass for Tom’s cellmate, Robert Craig. Shortly after 8:00 p.m., inmates returned to their pod for a head court after a period of recreation. Officer Means could not see Tom’s cell from his post at the entry to the pod.

At approximately 8:10 p.m., Daniel Pollen, who was housed next to Tom’s cell, testified that he heard loud “thumping” noises coming from the cell. Another inmate, Douglas Ford, testified that he saw Schmeiderer and Sanderson quickly leave Tom Harris’s cell at approximately 8:20 or 8:25 p.m.

A few minutes later, Craig went to Tom Harris’s cell to access it. Because Craig had been housed in Tom Harris’s cell for only one night, he did not yet have a key. Tom Harris and Robert Craig had been using a piece of cardboard to prevent the cell door from locking, but the cardboard was not in the door. Tom did not answer when Craig pounded on the locked door. Officer Means responded to Craig’s call for help at 8:30 p.m.

Officer Means unlocked the cell and found Tom Harris face down on the floor with a sock around his neck. The cell was in disarray. There was blood on the sock, his shirt, the television, the outside door handle, and a towel in the sink. A blood trail led from Tom Harris’s cell to the top of the stairway from Schmeiderer’s cell, which was located at the bottom of a stairway.

Events inside the cell and Schmeiderer’s statements

Schmeiderer’s cellmate, Jeffrey Hubert, testified that Schmeiderer met in their cell with Sanderson on the day of the murder and that the men stopped talking each time Hubert entered the cell. When the guards locked down the prison at 8:45 p.m., Hubert returned to the cell. Schmeiderer told him that “it was going to be a long night.”

Schmeiderer indicated that the guards would find blood on his pants because he had injured himself on the basketball court that day. Hubert saw Schmeiderer remove a shirt from a plastic bag and use his teeth to tear off a part of the shirt containing a blood stain. Schmeiderer flushed the bloody material down the toilet.

The blood-stained pants and blood-stained torn shirt were found in subsequent searches of Schmeiderer’s cell. Hubert asked Schmeiderer whether “he had stuck the old man upstairs.” Schmeiderer replied, “The man hadn’t been stuck. He’d been strangled to death.” Schmeiderer told Hubert that the “old man put up a fight” and “bit Chuck [Sanderson] on the hand.”

Schmeiderer also remarked that Tom Harris was a “baby raper” whose sentence was not long enough and that the killing would get Schmeiderer back into court, giving him an opportunity to escape.

Investigation

Two agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (“TBI”) interviewed Schmeiderer after he waived his Miranda rights. When asked to explain what happened, he responded, “Well, you’re the investigators, you tell me.” The agents then related to him their theory that he and Sanderson had gone into Tom Harris’s cell. A struggle ensued during which Sanderson’s finger was bitten and bled. Schmeiderer punched Tom Harris and ultimately strangled him with a sock. In the process, Schmeiderer’s clothes were stained with both Tom Harris’s blood and Sanderson’s blood. Essentially confirming this theory, Schmeiderer stated, “That’s pretty much it.”

When asked if he was bothered by taking a man’s life, Schmeiderer laughed, shrugged his shoulders, and said, “No.”

Dr. Charles Harlan, the pathologist who performed the autopsy of Tom Harris, determined that the cause of death was strangulation. He found scrapes and bruises and a line around the neck with broken capillaries, indicating that an object was tied or wrapped around the neck tightly.

Serological testing showed that Sanderson’s blood was on the television in Tom Harris’s cell, the outside door handle, and the towel in the sink. The sock used to strangle Tom Harris contained both his and Sanderson’s blood. Schmeiderer’s shirt had Tom Harris’s blood on it. Schmeiderer’s pants contained both Tom Harris’s and Sanderson’s blood.

Trial

Schmeiderer presented the testimony given by Sanderson at his separate trial. In that prior testimony, Sanderson stated that on the evening of the murder he went to Tom Harris’s cell to beat up Tom Harris for disrespecting Sanderson earlier that day. Schmeiderer stayed outside Tom Harris’s cell as a lookout. Sanderson knocked Tom Harris against the wall and hit him several times in the face after he bit Sanderson’s finger. Sanderson cleaned his finger at the sink, wiping his hand on the towel. When he left the cell, Tom Harris was alive, sitting on the bunk. Sanderson and Schmeiderer then went their separate ways. Sanderson could not explain how his blood got on Schmeiderer’s pants or on the sock around Tom Harris’s neck.

The jury convicted Schmeiderer of first degree premeditated murder.

Prior convictions and earlier conduct used at sentencing

October 9, 1998 events (attempted first degree murder convictions)

On October 9, 1998, Thomas Smith and his friend James Helmet initially encountered Schmeiderer at a BP gas station in Belfast, Tennessee. Helmet and Schmeiderer argued, and when Stout and Helmet tried to drive away, Schmeiderer, two other men, and a woman followed them.

Stout said that Schmeiderer’s car approached them at a high speed and stayed close to his back bumper. Stout recalled that a gun emerged from the back window of Schmeiderer’s car and discharged three or four times. The car followed his truck closely as the shooter continued to shoot. Stout drove up to a house, and Schmeiderer rammed Stout’s truck with his car.

Stout and Helmet jumped out of the truck and began yelling at the man who lived in the house to call the police. Schmeiderer then began pilfering Stout’s radio and other electronics from his truck. When Stout shouted at him to stop, Schmeiderer pulled out a gun and shot at them. Stout ran into the woods; Helmet died in front of the house from gunshot wounds.

Ted Olkowski testified about events involved in Schmeiderer’s attempted first degree murder conviction. Olkowski said that on that date, he heard a crash and saw a truck on his lawn that had been hit by car. He said that the men in the truck exited and ran behind Olkowski’s house while yelling that someone shot at them and ran them off the road. He said he saw the car that rammed the truck come back to the property and that it stopped in the middle of the road.

Olkowski testified that Schmeiderer, without speaking to Olkowski, “stepped out and walked up to Olkowski, pointed a gun in his chest and pulled the trigger, and it misfired.” Schmeiderer tried to un-jam his gun, and then Schmeiderer and his friend vandalized Helmet’s truck.

Olkowski testified: “The boy who owned the truck, ran from around the back of the house . . . hollering get out of the truck. So they did. You know, he got out, pulled the pistol back out and fired off a round at him (Helmet), when he was about halfway up the driveway.” Helmet fell to the ground, and Schmeiderer aimed downwards towards the body and tried to shoot him again, but the gun jammed.

Linda Olkowski testified similarly to her husband. She said she heard a crash outside the house and saw that a blue truck had crashed into her cedar tree. She saw “two boys . . . running at me, screaming 'call the sheriff, somebody is shooting at us.'” She called the sheriff twice, the second time being after she heard gun shots.

Linda testified that Schmeiderer, who was fifteen feet from Helmet, aimed and shot Helmet, who then fell back against her house. She saw Schmeiderer try to shoot Helmet again.

Schmeiderer was eighteen years old and was convicted of two counts of attempted first degree murder and one count of first degree murder and also pled guilty to aggravated assault. He was in prison on those convictions on the evening of July 11, 2001.

During sentencing, the State presented through the testimony of the two victims of Schmeiderer’s attempted murders and the wife of one of those victims the facts underlying these convictions and the murder conviction.

August 1999 and December 1999 convictions and plea

The State introduced proof that in August 1999 a jury convicted Schmeiderer of first degree premeditated murder and two counts of attempted first degree premeditated murder and that he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in December 1999.

Sentencing

A sentencing hearing determined punishment. The State presented the testimony of the warden of the South Central Correctional Center, who confirmed that Schmeiderer was an inmate there on the day of the murder. The State also introduced proof of the August 1999 convictions and the December 1999 guilty plea to aggravated assault.

Schmeiderer presented mitigation evidence through multiple witnesses and records. Joseph Cody Uttmor testified that he and Schmeiderer were high on Xanax at the time of the earlier murder and attempted murders. Schmeiderer also presented testimony of three family members.

His mother testified that she never married Schmeiderer’s father, who showed no affection toward Schmeiderer. She testified that Schmeiderer started getting into trouble in high school. After he was sent to an alternative school, he began stealing drugs, money, and guns. She testified that he entered a juvenile facility at age fifteen and remained there until his eighteenth birthday.

Schmeiderer’s maternal aunt and twelve-year-old sister testified that they loved Schmeiderer, and they asked the jury not to sentence him to death.

Three witnesses testified about Schmeiderer’s more recent conduct at Riverbend Maximum Security Prison. Mickey Sawyers, a case manager at Riverbend, testified that Schmeiderer had remained discipline-free during the prior two years. Ron Mosby and Adam Olsen, ministerial volunteers at Riverbend, testified that Schmeiderer, who was baptized in February 2004, had much to offer in life and could be fruitful even in the prison environment.

Finally, Schmeiderer presented testimony from Dr. Ann Marie Charvat, a mitigation specialist. She testified regarding her review of Schmeiderer’s school, medical, juvenile, and prison records. She testified that although Schmeiderer was evaluated at a psychiatric facility when he entered the juvenile justice system, he never received the recommended treatment for drug addiction. She testified that just a few months after he was released from state custody, he committed his earlier murder and attempted murders. She testified that the “theme” of Schmeiderer’s life was exclusion—exclusion from his father’s family, exclusion from a regular school environment, and exclusion from a normal teenage life. Dr. Charvat believed that Schmeiderer suffered from a cognitive emotional disorder resulting from “extreme psychological abuse.”

Based on the proof presented at sentencing, the jury found that the State had proven beyond a reasonable doubt both statutory aggravating circumstances: Schmeiderer was previously convicted of one or more felonies, other than the present charge, whose statutory elements involved the use of violence; and the murder was committed by Schmeiderer while Schmeiderer was in lawful custody or in a place of lawful confinement.

The jury further found that the statutory aggravating circumstances outweighed any mitigating circumstances. As a result, the jury sentenced Schmeiderer to death for the murder of Tom Harris.

Appeals

At the Tennessee Supreme Court review, the court ruled that mistakes made in the sentencing phase of Schmeiderer’s trial were harmless errors and rejected all other arguments. The Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the death sentence and set the execution date for September 13, 2011 after rejecting Schmeiderer’s automatic appeal.

Outcome

The jury convicted Schmeiderer of first degree premeditated murder for the death of Tom Harris. He was sentenced to death for that murder. The death sentence was upheld by the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Other details

Trial participants named

Prosecutors named were Doug Dicus and Patrick Butler. Defense lawyers named were Claudia Jack and Shipp Weems.

Escape-related motive content

During testimony, Schmeiderer’s comments connected the killing to returning to court and “opportunity to escape.” The motive for the slaying was not totally clear, but Schmeiderer had told another inmate that he had to commit another crime to get back into the trial system so as to perhaps have opportunities to escape.

Co-defendant

Schmeiderer’s co-conspirator, Chuck Sanderson, was convicted of Harris’s murder and was spared a death sentence by a separate jury.