For the better part of about two hours on the witness stand, Jennifer Schmelzer gave little more than an occasional quick glance in the direction of her ex-husband, Richard.
She frequently called him Rich, but showed little emotion even as she described how they met as teenagers at a Sleepy Hollow grocery store.
“We were childhood sweethearts, really,” Jennifer Schmelzer testified.
They married in 1996, became parents to four daughters and had “moments of ups and downs” through their years together. On Monday, the sixth day of Richard Schmelzer’s trial on charges he murdered his grandmother in 2014, Kane County prosecutors focused on the down times that dotted their relationship. Prosecutors have suggested Schmelzer, 44, killed Mildred Darrington in an effort to stake claim to his share of her estimated $800,000 estate amid worsening finances caused by his misuse of family money. He is accused of driving from his Texas home to East Dundee, stabbing his grandmother to death, then returning to Texas.
Assistant State’s Attorney Bill Engerman walked Jennifer Schmelzer through questions detailing her various discoveries that something might not have been right between 2010 and 2014: Foreclosure action on the family’s five-bedroom home after years without any mortgage payments being made; maxed out credit cards; phone bills with late-night calls to Las Vegas; unpaid bills to doctors and a roofer; missing retirement money.
With hindsight brought to the forefront, her voice would drop lower each time she acknowledged trusting her husband’s handling of the money and explanation for her concerns.
“I felt he could do it,” she said of Richard Schmelzer’s managing of the mortgage and bills. “We didn’t have any problems in Illinois.”
With the couple earning at least $200,000 a year by 2014, Jennifer Schmelzer said she believed they could afford their expenses — which included a live-in nanny and a nearly $700 payment on Richard Schmelzer’s BMW — based on what Richard Schmelzer reportedly told her.
“He would tell me if money was tight,” she said.
She now knows differently. Jennifer Schmelzer filed for bankruptcy, is entangled with the IRS over thousands of dollars withdrawn without her knowledge from a retirement account and continues to fight to keep her home, she testified.
A judge in Texas granted her request for a divorce from Schmelzer a year ago.
Jennifer Schmelzer’s testimony also recounted how Richard sounded “calm” when she finally spoke to him the day of Darrington’s death to tell him to call his sister. On the drive from Texas to Illinois for the funeral, she said he consoled their daughters at times, while spending other moments on the phone making arrangements to meet with the attorney who handled Darrington’s estate — with the latter prompting her to ask whether doing so was appropriate given the immediate circumstances.
“He said he needed to get the ball rolling” because of his upcoming work schedule, she explained.
The day after the funeral, Schmelzer told his wife as they drove to the South Elgin Police Department that he wasn’t going to spend a lot of time talking with investigators during a scheduled interview, according to his ex-wife’s testimony.
Richard Schmelzer’s attorney, Joshua Dieden, followed up on the couple’s finances and their strained relationship during cross-examination. Jennifer Schmelzer acknowledged telling an investigator the marriage was in a “good place” during her interview with police, although she had already accused Richard of being unfaithful multiple times.
“I even got to the point where I asked him if he was cheating on me,” Jennifer Schmelzer told jurors in response to an earlier question from Engerman. “He said no.”
Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for the Courier-News.
More Top Picks Best Drones Under 500