Janesville man facing trial in domestic homicide
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Michael Paul
Photo
Vincent Tranchida
JANESVILLE — A Janesville man told police he shoved his girlfriend once the night she died in the basement of their home.
But a forensic pathologist Tuesday said Lisa M. Schaefer's body suffered multiple injuries that could have been caused when someone knelt on her chest and pummeled her.
Michael R. Paul, 36, of 326 S. Parker Drive, Janesville, was bound over for trial Tuesday on charges of first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse.
Janesville police found Schaefer's body Jan. 10 hidden under the basement stairs of the home she shared with Paul. Police think Paul killed Schaefer on Jan. 7.
Schaefer's daughter reported her mother missing Jan. 8. Police found the body while executing a search warrant at the home near downtown Janesville.
Detective Michael Duerr testified in Rock County Court on Tuesday that he interviewed Paul after police found Schaefer's body. Paul told Duerr that he and Schaefer lived together but had been having problems with their relationship. Paul said that on the night she died, Schaefer had been "hollering" at Paul and that she hit him and pulled his hair, Duerr testified he was told.
Paul said he stood up and lifted his arms, and his hands struck Schaefer under the chin, causing her to fly across the room and hit the back of her head on a wall, Duerr testified Paul told him.
"He said he went upstairs, had a beer and relaxed," Duerr said.
Duerr said Paul called a friend and said he didn't mean to hurt Schaefer. At one point he told the friend Schaefer still was breathing. Later, he said she wasn't, Duerr said.
Paul told Duerr he dragged Schaefer's body under the stairs and "threw a jacket, some rags and a bunch of clothes" over the body. Paul said he hid the body to keep the household's dogs from it while he decided what to do, Duerr said.
"He told me he was sorry, and he also said Schaefer cost him is car, his job and his freedom," Duerr said.
Dane County Chief Medical Examiner Vincent Tranchida testified Tuesday about the findings of the autopsy on Schaefer's body.
Schaefer's eyes and face were badly bruised, Tranchida said. Some of the bruises on her neck and forehead were consistent with a shoeprint, Tranchida said.
Schaefer's jaw was broken in more than one place, and some teeth were knocked out of her mouth. Some of her neck bones were fractured, and she had broken ribs on each side of her chest. The way the ribs were broken was consistent with crushing injuries rather than striking injuries, as if someone knelt or sat on Schaefer's body, Tranchida said.
Tranchida said he could not determine whether Schaefer was strangled, but if she was, it wasn't what killed her, he said. She died when an artery at the base of her head was torn, Tranchida said. Such an injury would have happened when she was struck on the side of the head hard enough to violently twist her neck, he said.
Tranchida thinks Schaefer was alive for at least a few heartbeats after suffering the injury, he said.
The large number of injuries to lots of parts of Schaefer's body rule out the possibility of death caused by falling and striking a wall or table, Tranchida said.
"Some of these impacts could be accounted for by an impact on a wall or an impact on another surface," Tranchida said. "But there is not one impact that could account for all the injuries."
Paul is in custody at the Rock County Jail on a $200,000 cash bond. He is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday, Feb. 29, for arraignment.
