Elderly Husband Gets 25 Years in Bellevue Hatchet Slaying

The 72-year-old Bellevue man found guilty of killing his wife with a hatchet, was was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

James Schumacher walked into Bellevue Police Department headquarters in March 2012 and told police that he killed his wife, Jean Schumacher, 71, with a hatchet. He told police where to find her body, hidden under her bed at their home in the 100 block of 159th Avenue Southeast, according to the Bellevue Police Department.

According to the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, Schumacher faced a standard range of 12 to 20 years in prison, but prosecutors requested an exceptional sentence of 25 years.

Schumacher told police that the couple were married for 46 years and she was belittling to him and condescending, and he had a history of assaulting her in the past and had been arrested for it.

However, their adult children testified to their father's violent past during his trial, according to an article in the Seattle Times.

The adult children also described living in fear of him in a 2010 No Contact order that Jean Schumacher had taken on her husband.

According to court papers, Schumacher told police that his wife threatened to divorce him and then went to her bedroom and locked the door.

The next morning, according to Schumacher's account, he selected a hatchet from the garage to "Scare the s*** out of her" and then entered her locked bedroom with a nail, where his wife lay on the bed. Schumacher said that he thought his wife was awake but ignoring him, and he hit her with the hatchet five or six times in the head.

Schumacher told police that he cleaned the hatchet, took their bloody clothes and stuffed it into a large plastic bag and put it in the closet, and then shoved her under the bed, according to court papers.

Schumacher told police that he contemplated suicide or driving away from the house, but then decided to turn himself in to the police, according to court papers.

Schumacher worked for The Boeing Co. and U.S. Steel, each for 17 years, according to the Bellevue Police Department.