It all started in August of 2020.
More accurately, it began in 2011, when Christopher Michael Schneider appeared before the Third Judicial District Court in Lyon County on charges of Statutory Sexual Seduction - more commonly known as statutory rape.
Nevada law states that when an individual is over 18 years old and has any sexual penetration with a minor who is 14 or 15 and at least four years younger than the perpetrator, the crime is considered statutory sexual seduction. Schneider, who was 30 years old when convicted, received 24-60 months in the Nevada Department of Corrections.
Sometime after his release in 2013, Schneider made his way to Reno. By 2015, he racked up two additional felony convictions; uttering a forged instrument (like trying to pass a forged check or other fraudulent documents) and failing to meet sex offender registration requirements. He received two 16–48-month sentences in NDOC, which ran concurrently, and he was back on the streets in the spring of 2017.
Within three years, Schneider was back in a courtroom, only this time it was in Fallon. Failing to provide law enforcement with his home address, he once again flunked sex offender registration 101. According to his public defender at the time, Charles Woodman, Esq., his client was essentially homeless and had no fixed address. Released on his own recognizance, Schneider soon added to the charge against him by ignoring his obligation to appear in court on September 11, 2020. As a result, a bench warrant with a $40,000 cash-only bond was issued for felony Failure to Appear (FTA).
Schneider was not on the run for long. Back in custody by December, he had picked up yet another charge. This one, however, was far more serious. He had been accused of a Class A felony - sexual assault. Again.
According to court documents, on or about May 30 of 2020, at an Allen Road address, Schneider forced another person into sex against the will of the victim or under conditions in which the perpetrator knew that the victim was mental or physically capable of resisting or understand the nature of his conduct. The victim in the case was a female juvenile, 16 years old at the time.
In March of 2021, on the recommendation of his Public Defender Jacob Sommer, Schneider was sent to Lakes Crossing Center in Sparks, which provides forensic mental health services for the state. The psychiatric staff evaluated Schneider to determine if he met the competency requirements to stand trial.
Based on Lake Crossing’s recommendations, Schneider was deemed competent in November by Judge Thomas Stockard of the Tenth Judicial District Court, after which he was re-arraigned and pled guilty to the charge. Sommer provided the factual basis for the Court stating that his client, by penetration, sexually assaulted the victim who was mentally or physically incapable of resisting and reported that she was intoxicated when the incident occurred.
On Tuesday, February 22, and 450 days after being taken into custody on the assault charge, Schneider finally appeared for sentencing.
Proceedings moved quickly as the victim in the case elected not to provide victim impact testimony. Schneider declined to make any statements to the Court before judgment was pronounced. Neither defense counsel nor Assistant District Attorney Jeffery Weed made arguments, as Nevada statute sealed Schneider’s fate. He was going to prison.
Now 40 years old, the two-time convicted sex offender will spend at least a decade inside. As a repeat offender, that number is most likely a lot longer.
Judge Stockard sentenced Schneider to life in prison with the possibility of parole after ten years. All other charges were dismissed, and he was remanded back to the custody of the Churchill County Sheriff’s office for disposition of sentence.
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