Andrew and Alecia Schmuhl

Andrew and Alecia Schmuhl

***If you have recently seen a documentary show based on this story you may find some things that may seen drastically different than it was portrayed. Please note that as always I will point out things that were unclear in my research but the conclusions and facts that I make her are based on Internet searches and when I find inconsistencies I will search deeper in attempts to settle them.***

This case, although it was not a murder, simply by pure luck, interested me on several levels. First there is the common stupidity that criminals think that they can get away with a crime and think they are “so smart.” Then there was the main idea that the perpetrator was a “common” drug addict and yet in my opinion not only was that not proven, but even if it could have been it is another example of doctors handing out pill after pill without any real consideration of what the affects of those medications could cause. If you have ever dealt with VA doctors or hospitals than you may also see the inept care that is often given through the administration that “trickled down” to this case.

On the night of November 9, 2014 sixty-one year old attorney, Leo Fisher and his wife Sue Duncan were waiting for dinner to be finished in their McLean Virginia home at about 6:15 that evening. That is when the doorbell rang and their lives were changed forever. Leo went to answer the door while Sue was still in the kitchen. Leo was immediately attacked with a stun gun in the chest. The man at the door, Andrew Schmuhl, then bound Leo's hands and feet with zip ties and moved towards the kitchen where he would find Sue. Once he reached the kitchen Andrew flashed a badge and told Sue that he was with “the Virginia SEC” and that he was there to arrest her husband. Sue, through her own work, knew there was no such thing as the Virginia SEC and began to scream. She too was then bound at her hands and feet.

For nearly four hours the couple was held hostage in their home at gunpoint. Andrew, who gave a false name to the couple, started by accusing Leo of sending an email to put “a hit” on someone on a “cartel” that he worked for in the amount of $370,000. Leo kept denied this had happened and insisted he had no idea what he was talking about. Andrew began asking questions about the law firm Leo worked for and named people by name in the company as if he was familiar with the company. After this Andrew told Leo that someone had put a “hit” on him for $27,000. When Leo stated he did not know anyone that would do that Andrew responded with “Didn't you let somebody go lately?” Leo would later tell investigators that he knew as soon as he saw Andrew who he was but if he did not, this comment surely would have had Leo thinking.

Leo had recently fired someone at the firm. In fact, just eleven days prior he had fired Alecia Schmuhl. Leo, who was said to always give people more chances than they deserved, says he should have fired Alecia the previous June. She had worked at the firm, that specialized in cases involving trademarks and copyrights for about a year when it was discovered that she had applied for a mortgage loan and had misrepresented some things. Normally that may not have been as huge of a deal but Alecia had involved the firm in her scheme. She had stated that Andrew, who was also a lawyer, at least for a time, was an employee of the firm but she had also impersonated the Human Resources department of the firm when the bank called to do some followup. Even prior to this incident there had been issues with Alecia missing meeting and important deadlines. Leo called Alecia into his office and instead of firing her, he sent her home telling her that he would think things over. The following morning Alecia had come into the office but her husband, Andrew was with her too. The three went into Leo's office and again, mainly due to Andrew's outbursts and behavior he should have fired her, Leo decided not to fire her. Things had not gotten better by October. Alecia's performance at work was still not what it should have been so on October 27^th Leo fired her and offered her a severance package.

Despite knowing exactly who Andrew Schmuhl was Leo decided not to say anything. First he said he did not want to scare Sue, but secondly he did not know how Andrew would react if he did call him out. Keep in mind that this is one of the discrepancies I discovered on the documentary show that I watched. The television show indicated that prior to Andrew eventually leaving the home Leo had in fact called him by his real name and told him he knew who he was. I found many articles that were written after the crime that showed quotes in which Leo stated he did not call Andrew out.

About forty-five minutes after Andrew had entered the home he left the couple in their room while he began going outside the bedroom and making calls on his cell phone. Most of his answers were vague one word answers so there was no way the couple knew what the discussion was about or who he was talking to. He would return to the room and comment that he had talked to his “partner” or his “boss.” At one point Andrew led Leo to his home office and forced him to log into the law firms network. As Leo was pushed aside Andrew began typing and searching for something on the computer. Leo noticed that Andrew seemed to be growing frustrated and led Leo back to the bedroom.

The year prior Leo had heart surgery and sometime throughout the ordeal he began having trouble breathing and said he felt as if he was having a heart attack. Andrew refused to call for any medical help or allow Sue to do so. However, when Sue became nauseous he untied her hands so that she could use the bathroom. She apparently went back and forth a few times. One time when she was there she noticed that Andrew was at the front door and was flipping the porch light switch; another time she saw him with the door open and talking to a woman outside.

Next Andrew started asking the couple about money in the house. Leo claimed there was none but offered to take him to an ATM. That was not an option for Andrew so he then began asking about gold and valuables in the home. Leo informed him that he could take whatever he wanted out of the home. At this point Sue was in the bathroom again and Andrew proceeded to knock Leo over, put a pillow over his face and then cut his throat. He then began stabbing Leo repeatedly. When Sue came out of the bathroom he pulled out a gun and fired at her. The bullet grazed the side of her head “taking a divot out of her scalp.” He then began stabbing Sue repeatedly in the upper body.

As he left the home Andrew picked up the spent shell casing, kicked Leo in the head and said “You're going to die” and he then left the room. He was barely out of the house before Sue reached up and tripped the burglar alarm on the wall. The blaring siren echoed throughout the house. She discovered the phone in the bedroom had been disabled so she drug herself to Leo's office where she called 911.

When emergency responders and the police arrived at the Fisher home Leo was asked who had injured him. He stated it had been Andrew Schmuhl and spelled out his name. An APB went out for the Schmuhl's vehicle. Just a few minutes later the vehicle was seen. Alecia was driving but refused to pull over. The officer in pursuit stated he saw Andrew removing his clothes from the passenger seat of the car. After several miles Alecia finally pulled over and without being asked Andrew got out of the car. Much was made about the fact that he was wearing an “adult diaper.” The media first ran with this and later the prosecution would bring this up in Andrew's trial. I will get into things in a bit but to be fair I think more was made of that issue than there should have been. Officers would say that when he was first apprehended Andrew seemed normal but soon it appeared as if he was almost “passing out” and he started looking and acting strangely. He was asked if he was on any or taken any drugs. Officers called for EMS and also saw a Fentanyl patch on his arm which they removed. He was taken to the hospital where Narcan was administered and within minutes he seemed to be better. This led hospital officials, as well as investigators to believe that he was in the midst of a drug overdose at the time of his arrest. Again, though things are not always exact as they initially appear in situations.

In the meantime, while Andrew was being treated at the hospital, Leo and Sue were at the same hospital having their life threatening injuries addressed. They would both eventually survive but with many physical and emotional scars. Leo's injuries would affect the nerves in his hands and his speech which obviously affected his work and livelihood.

It is not clear on just what charges Alecia was initially charged with but a grand jury indicted Andrew on seven charges of abduction, aggravated malicious wounding, use of a firearm and burglary. The couple was initially supposed to face trial together but Alecia's attorney's argued that Andrew had been abusive and controlling to Alecia and to have a joint trial would be detrimental to her case. His attorney continues to deny these claims and in fact has stated it was the other way around in the fact that she was the abusive and controlling spouse, not Andrew.

Andrew's attorney's would not argue that he had committed the crime. They only argued the why in court. His defense is known as “involuntary intoxication” and is similar in the idea of an insanity defense. The argument becomes not that they committed the crime, but that they were not in their right mind when they did so. In fact, they argued not only that Alecia had been abusive and controlling but that she had coerced him into committing the crime and drugged him as well. Among the other allegations that were made by the defense was the issue that he had been “failed” by his VA doctors.

My research was not very specific as to if Andrew suffered an injury in 2010 or in 2012. However, there is no dispute that he had in fact fallen on some ice while in the middle of doing some Army training. It said that by 2014 much of his time was spent in bed. He had obtained disability and the couple lived on that and Alecia's income. The bigger issue at hand though was the amount of medication Andrew was on. He had suffered a spinal cord injury when he fell and in the two years leading up to the attacks on the Fisher's he had his dose of Fentanyl raised twice. It was in the form of a patch. On top of the Fentanyl, which is a pain medication he had a prescription for Dilaudid that he took every four to six hours, Toradol injections, Gabapentin three times a day, all pain medications. He was also put on Clonidine patches and Lisinopril, both blood pressure medications. He took Cymbalta for depression, Sumatriptan for migraines, and the muscle relaxer, Tizanidine. In addition to that he took medication for gastrointestinal issues, and low testosterone, which was a hormone modulator. Those were all his prescribed medications. He was also taking over the counter things such as Pepto-Bismol, Ex-lax and NyQuil to counter some of the side effects of the other medications. Not long before the attacks at the Fisher home Andrew had also been taken to the ER suffering from kidney stones. The surgery had caused incontinence. This latter issue is why I believe the fact that he was found wearing an adult diaper at the time of his arrest, which was just after the attacks was blown out of proportion by the media and manipulated by the prosecutors.

When the couple had been apprehended they found a taser gun, a Cobra .380, a knife, credit cards belonging to Leo Fisher, bloody clothing belonging to Andrew, a novelty police badge and two notes inside the car. One of the notes was in in Alecia's handwriting with the address and directions to the Fisher home and the other was in Andrews writing that was basically a shopping list of things needed. They would later find surveillance video in which Alecia was seen buying the taser gun just two days prior to the attack. Around the same time Andrew had bought two prepaid phones. One of the SIMS cards from the phones had been removed and torn in half but investigators were able to repair it. Those were used to establish the contact the two had during the attack but they also used the couple's regular cell phones and text messages that they had shared to show conversations the two had around the time that Alecia was fired from the law firm. There was immediate talk between them about suing the firm for wrongful termination.

Leo Fisher and Sue Duncan testified that while Andrew had been in their home he did not act confused or odd. Defense attorney's would talk not just of all the medications Andrew was taking and the Fentanyl patch that was removed when he was arrested but that a second Fentanyl patch had been found under the adult diaper at the hospital. They argued that Alecia helped Andrew with his medication, including sometimes placing patches and giving him injections. They also argued that the second patch was in an area in which he could not see and could not have placed himself and alleged that Alecia had placed this patch there in an attempt to overdose him. An expert, Eileen Ryan, a psychiatrist from the University of Virginia, was called to the stand by the defense who explained to the jury what “medication-induced delirium” meant. It appears that she had planned to testify that this is what Andrew had suffered from but the prosecution argued that they had not had him examined by an expert for their side so Ryan was only allowed to testify in vague terms. In my opinion this was a tactic by the prosecution to not give credence to the defense position. They could have very easily had him evaluated but it is almost as if they feared that they would have difficulty proving their position that he was not “intoxicated” by drugs at the time and it could risk their case. Alecia was called to testify but she pleaded the Fifth Amendment throughout her testimony. In the end the jury did not seem to buy the defense theory, or even if they did, they could not by law find a way around it. After a five week trial they found Andrew guilty on all charges. In June of 2016 he was sentenced to two life terms plus ninety-eight years.

The following September Alecia was to stand trial but on the first day she accepted a plea agreement in which was pleaded guilty to the five charges she faced. At her sentencing hearing she would argue that she did not know what would happen and that Andrew had forced her to drive to the Fisher home saying he was going to negotiate a better deal for her. In my opinion the fact that he continued to call and consult with her throughout the more than three hour ordeal goes against this idea. Alecia was sentenced to forty-five years in prison.

The reality of the crime is that Andrew, and Alecia, were guilty of the attacks on Leo Fisher and Sue Duncan. His attorney was correct in the fact that there was not a matter of who did the crime, but why the crime was committed. It would not be surprising to know that with all of the pain medication that had been prescribed to Andrew that he was likely addicted to the drugs but it also does not seem to be out of the realm of possibility that Alecia had also given him more than she should have by adding an additional patch. In my opinion I have to think that it was Alecia who was the more domineering of the two but Andrew the more violent. She knew this going in and could have easily manipulated the situation. Although I doubt either of them expected to be caught so fast.