Ex-wife of retired JSO detective pleads guilty to murder in cold-case killing

 

Ex-wife of retired JSO detective pleads guilty to murder in cold-case killing

Over twenty years after corner shop proprietor Saad Kawaf was killed, the previous spouse of a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office investigator at the time confessed to second-degree murder and four other savage wrongdoings associated with his passing.

 

Melissa Schafer and her then-spouse, JSO Official William Baer, were connected to the executing through DNA proof found under Kawaf's fingernails and blood found at the wrongdoing scene. 

Police said Schafer and Baer burglarized Kawaf and his better half since they had over $50,000. 

In court Friday, Schafer got passionate as she confessed to aiding the homicide and consented to affirm honestly in future arraignments. Baer has argued not liable and is anticipating preliminary. 

Notwithstanding murder, Shafer confessed to abducting, furnished theft, outfitted robbery with attack or battery and exasperated battery. Under condemning rules, Schafer could confront 31 years to life in jail for her violations, yet under the condemning understanding, the court could stray from those rules.

 

Baer, 64, and Schafer were captured independently toward the beginning of July. Schafer, 51, was at first imprisoned in Missouri and removed to Duval Region to deal with indictments.

Kawaf, who was 39 and possessed Woods Rebate Store, was murdered during a burglary in May 1999. As indicated by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, DNA proof gathered from the assault later highlighted Baer and Schafer, who were hitched at the hour of the assault. 

Police said Kawaf was preparing to leave his home when he was trapped by a man and lady in his carport and wounded by the man. Kawaf's significant other got into an actual quarrel with the lady, yet she constrained once more into the home and undermined with a blade by the man.

 

The assailants said they realized Kawaf had not yet put aside the week after week installment at the bank and they needed the money. Ultimately, the spouse disclosed to them where they could discover $30,000 in the kitchen cupboards. 

Police said they took the cash, taped her to a seat and ran off. Kawaf didn't endure his cutting wounds.

Baer was with the Sheriff's Office for a very long time, participating in 1975 and resigning in 2002. At the hour of the homicide, Baer had been an insight division investigator and knew Kawaf through work, JSO said.

 

Baer's lawyers have recorded a movement requesting their customer to be allowed bail saying his life is in peril inside the prison due to the Covid. They state basic medical problems put him in danger of intricacies in the event that he gets the infection, which has contaminated many prisoners.