LONGMONT, Colo. — A second person was arrested Tuesday evening in connection to the killing of a Longmont letter carrier last week.
Andrew James "AJ" Ritchie, 34, was arrested by the Longmont Police Services and the US Postal Inspection Service on Tuesday.
He was booked into the Boulder County Jail on charges of first-degree murder - complicity. Court records show he is being held without bond.
Around noon on Oct. 13, Jason Schaefer, 33, was found shot and killed near Heatherhill Circle and Renaissance Drive, where he had been delivering mail.
Later that evening, Devan Schreiner, 26, was arrested in connection to the shooting. According to her arrest affidavit, she was Schaefer's ex-girlfriend.
Ritchie works at the Federal Correctional Institution at Littleton, according to an affidavit for his arrest.
Schreiner had threatened Schaefer previously, saying that Ritchie would shoot him, the affidavit says, and the police and Postal Inspector investigation uncovered that Ritchie tracked Schaefer along his mail route the morning he was killed.
When Ritchie was interviewed on the day of the shooting by a postal inspector, he claimed he had not seen or spoken to Schreiner all day despite her GPS tracker for work pinging at his home in Loveland.
He claimed that he had been at work the night before and got home at 8 a.m. before Schreiner came over at 11 a.m. He also originally claimed that he and Schreiner were just friends – though both of those claims turned out to be false, according to the affidavit.
A search of Schreiner’s phone uncovered that the two had multiple long conversations that day in the hours surrounding the deadly shooting, as well as audio recordings of Ritchie telling her that he loved her.
Several cameras on homes in the area captured a Dodge Durango belonging to Way To Go on the day of the shooting, which was confirmed to be used by Ritchie and which the affidavit said “appears to be following Jason’s Postal Vehicle and his delivery route.”
Tracking of his phone and Schrieners shows them tracking together the morning of the shooting before Ritchie’s phone goes toward Longmont when Schreiner arrived for work at the Loveland Post Office. The affidavit says for the next hour and a half, Ritchie’s phone was in “very close proximity” to Schaefer’s GPS scanner used for work.
Just before noon, Ritchie drove to a Hooters restaurant in Loveland.
Investigators also uncovered a Snapchat picture taken two days before the shooting showing a person in clothing that matched the description of the shooting suspect, which they later discovered was taken inside Schreiner’s master bathroom, according to the affidavit.
When Ritchie was confronted by officers at work on Oct. 19, he admitted he had lied to the postal inspector and police and admitted he’d been in Longmont that day after they showed him the photo of the person purported to be Schreiner wearing the same clothes as the suspect’s description.
He also, according to the affidavit, admitted to following Schaefer’s mail truck for most of the morning after Schaefer left work. He told investigators that he told Schaefer along the way that day that Schaefer was “pushing Devan over the line” and that he needed to watch out, to which Schaefer allegedly responded, “I’m not afraid of that b----.”
But he also admitted he had lied to investigators to cover up his relationship with Schreiner, and retained an attorney after Schreiner was charged.
On Tuesday, Schreiner was officially charged with first-degree murder. She will be held without bond until at least her preliminary hearing and proof evident, presumption great hearing, which were set for Jan. 10.
Schreiner and Schaefer were in the midst of a custody battle after Schaefer filed court documents seeking the majority of their 5-year-old child’s parenting time and sole decision-making responsibilities, according to the arrest affidavit and other court documents. The records also showed prior divorce and custody cases involving the two. Court documents also show that Schreiner was not giving Schaefer her new address, was changing pickup times and locations, and that the child had been injured several times and exposed to COVID during Schreiner’s time with the child.