Jason Horner of Owatonna, MN: Sabrina Schnoor Murder and Sentence

Jason Lee Horner, a man from Owatonna, Minnesota, was convicted in November 2025 of murdering his former girlfriend, Sabrina Lee Schnoor, and sentenced the following month to 18 years in prison. A Steele County jury found him guilty on all five counts after an 11-day trial, concluding that he shot Schnoor beneath an Interstate 35 overpass on the night of May 29, 2023.¹

What Happened the Night Sabrina Schnoor Was Killed

Horner and Schnoor met at Morehouse Park in Owatonna on the evening of May 29, 2023, and walked together along railroad tracks toward I-35. Surveillance video from a store on State Avenue, about half a mile from the scene, recorded them together shortly after 9:30 p.m. and showed Horner shoving Schnoor in the head as they moved toward the overpass.²

Under the overpass along County Road 2, Horner fired a single shotgun slug through Schnoor’s mouth at close range, killing her, then fled.¹ When friends could not reach her later, they tracked her phone through the Life360 app; her last recorded movement was at 9:56 p.m.³ They found her body under the overpass shortly after 10 p.m. on May 30, 2023. A bandolier of .410-gauge shotgun shells, with one to two shells missing, lay beneath her.² No firearm was recovered at the scene.⁴

How Horner Was Identified and Arrested

Investigators identified Horner through the State Avenue surveillance footage that placed him with Schnoor shortly before her death.² On June 4, 2023, just after 4 a.m., authorities arrested him without incident while executing a search warrant at an apartment in Waseca, Minnesota. He was held at the Steele County Jail.⁵

An autopsy determined Schnoor died from a single shotgun slug wound and ruled the manner of death homicide, not accident or suicide. A partial shotgun shell was retrieved from her head and neck.⁴

The Trial and the Verdict

The case was prosecuted by the Minnesota Attorney General’s office after Steele County Attorney Robert Jarrett referred it. The trial lasted 11 days at the Steele County Courthouse.¹

Horner’s defense argued that Schnoor accidentally shot herself. He admitted being present when she died but claimed she picked up the gun near the railroad tracks and caused it to discharge into her own face.⁶ The defense pointed to drugs in Schnoor’s system as a potential factor and argued that forensic testing was insufficient, noting items at the scene that were never tested for DNA.⁷

Prosecutors put forward several strands of evidence:

Surveillance video showing Horner and Schnoor entering the overpass together and Horner leaving alone, plus footage of him carrying a black bag identified in court as a gun case.⁷⁴
Facebook messages in which Horner had threatened to harm Schnoor and denied prior instances of beating her, along with messages he sent to friends after the meeting under the bridge indicating “something had happened.”⁴
Testimony that Schnoor, the day before she died, told a friend she wanted to get a gun because Horner had one and she would feel safer with her own.⁶
Horner’s detailed knowledge of the shotgun, including its appearance, shell size, interchangeable barrels, and reloading method.⁴

On November 20, 2025, after roughly seven hours of deliberation, the jury found Horner guilty on all five counts: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, second-degree manslaughter, and possession of a firearm by an ineligible person. The firearm charge stemmed from a prior criminal history that barred him from possessing a gun.⁸⁹

Horner’s Sentence

On December 22, 2025, Horner was sentenced at the Steele County Courthouse to 216 months (18 years) for second-degree unintentional murder and 60 months (five years) for illegal possession of a firearm, with the sentences to be served concurrently.¹⁰

Steele County Attorney Robert Jarrett said the verdict “held Mr. Horner accountable for his act of domestic violence in the homicide of Sabrina Schnoor.”⁸ Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison described Schnoor as “someone who brought tremendous joy and happiness to those around her” and said she was “taken from us far too soon.”¹

Who Sabrina Schnoor Was

Sabrina Lee Schnoor was 25 when she died. Born February 17, 1998, in Mankato, Minnesota, she attended schools in the Waterville-Elysian-Morristown district and Owatonna High School. She was the mother of a seven-year-old son, Daniel.¹¹ Attorney General Ellison described her as an artist.¹ Her family remembered her as creative and compassionate, someone who enjoyed fishing, camping, music, and had recently taken an interest in tattooing. She and Horner had been in an on-and-off relationship for seven years before her death.⁴

Sabrina’s Law and the Family’s Advocacy

Schnoor’s killing drew a wave of community memorials. Family, friends, and volunteers built a memorial at the site using purple decorations, a symbol of domestic abuse awareness.¹²

Her mother, Stacia Schnoor, became a vocal advocate for domestic violence reform. She criticized the legal system, arguing that prior domestic violence cases involving Horner should not have been dismissed and that existing law prevented the jury from seeing the full history of abuse.⁴ In a June 2023 interview she urged victims to leave abusive relationships and called on legislators and judges to impose stricter consequences on repeat domestic violence offenders.¹³

The family has also pushed for legislation they call “Sabrina’s Law,” which would change state rules about what relationship evidence can be presented to a jury in domestic violence trials. Stacia Schnoor has organized a domestic violence awareness rally for May 30, 2026, at Central Park in Owatonna, marking the three-year anniversary of the discovery of Sabrina’s body.¹⁴

1
Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. Jury Convicts Jason Lee Horner
2
Fox 9. Man Charged After Woman Found Shot to Death Under I-35 Overpass in Minnesota
3
Bring Me The News. Man Found Guilty of Killing Ex-Girlfriend Beneath Owatonna Overpass
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KAAL TV. Inside the Trial: The Murder of Sabrina Schnoor
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KTTC. One Arrested in Owatonna Homicide Investigation
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CBS News Minnesota. Owatonna Jason Horner Guilty Verdict
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KAAL TV. Jury Deliberations to Continue Thursday in Owatonna Murder Case
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KTTC. Jury Finds Owatonna Man Guilty of Murder of Former Girlfriend
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Yahoo News. Owatonna Man Gets 18 Years
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KAAL TV. Jason Horner to Be Sentenced Monday in Owatonna Murder Case
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Dennis Funeral and Cremation Services. Sabrina Schnoor Obituary
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KSTP. Loved Ones Remember 25-Year-Old Elysian Woman
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KEYC. Stacia Schnoor Speaks Out Against Domestic Violence
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KAAL TV. Sabrina Schnoor’s Mother Stacia Is Set to Host Domestic Violence Awareness Rally