Donald and Michael Schneider of Parkdale pled guilty Tuesday to killing their childhood friend, Jason Muschaweck, in 2014.
Michael Schneider, 28, was sentenced to 25 years to life for murder.
Donald Schneider, 23, will serve 20 years for manslaughter and 19 months for burglary.
A third brother, Peter Schneider, 24, is still in jail. He had bailed out in December, but authorities re-arrested him at the Tuesday appearance for bringing knives to court.
The case almost went to trial — scheduled for a three week block in February — but according to court records, Michael and Donald Schneiders’ attorneys, Kami White and Peter Parnickis, stipulated at a Jan. 26 settlement conference for the two brothers to serve those felony charges while others, including criminal conspiracy and abuse of corpse, were dismissed.
In a rare murder case for Hood River County, Muschaweck was first declared missing after he vanished from his Clear Creek Road home in Parkdale on his 24th birthday, May 4, 2014. His house was ransacked; his pit bull was shot and stabbed.
Muschaweck’s family considered him missing until June 2015 when the three Schneiders were arrested at nearby homes — Donald and Michael were charged with murder and Peter was charged with several of the same felonies associated with the incident, including burglary, theft, aggravated animal abuse and criminal conspiracy.
According to court records, prosecutors in June said the Schneiders stole Muschaweck’s gun and fatally shot him with it.
On Tuesday, attorneys settled for Michael to serve time for murder and Donald to be sentenced for manslaughter and burglary, under condition that the two brothers’ other charges be dropped. Each brother will also pay $3,000 in court fines and restitution to Muschaweck’s family.
Peter still faces charges related to the original incident — theft, burglary, animal abuse, and conspiracy — as well as two new charges related to possession of knives in public.
Though he posted a $7,500 bail and left Northern Oregon Regional Corrections Facility under conditional release, he was re-arrested at the three brothers’ Tuesday court appearance. “He had a substantial folding knife in his pocket (and) two concealed ones on his person that were discovered in the process of going through the metal detector,” District Attorney John Sewell said.
Peter was arraigned Wednesday, and he’s scheduled to appear again in court Feb. 16.
As of Wednesday, the other two brothers were en route to Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, NORCOR clerks said. There, the Schneiders will undergo an analysis to determine what level of security prison will house them for the rest of their decades-long sentences.
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