John Schultz IV given suspended sentence, goes into immediate probation

ROCHESTER, Ind. -- A second chance for John Schultz IV-- who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder last month. 

Schultz was arrested back in July 2020, after a family member came forward expressing concern in his behavior, believing that he and a friend, Donald Robin Jr, were planning to shoot up a Rochester area school. Robin Jr pleaded guilty after his arrest; he is currently serving eight years in prison. 

Schultz was first tried in August 2021, but a hung jury gave them a mistrial. The case was brought to trial again, but the jury was split down the middle-- still deadlocked after nearly nine hours of deliberation-- and no one wanted to pursue a third trial. 

According to Fulton County Prosecutor Mike Marrs, “At the eleventh hour we started to discussing a plea, and ultimately did a plea that called for him to plead to it with no agreement but the cap on time served.”

Judge A. Christopher Lee accepted his plea at sentencing this afternoon: Schultz was handed down a suspended nineteen-and-a-half year sentence, and went into immediate three year probation.

“He’s spent five-hundred and sixty-six days in jail. That’s the only time he’s spending in jail," said Joseph Bauer, one of Schultz's attorneys. "He’s not going to prison.”

Schultz's probation had several conditions: no consuming drugs or alcohol, he cannot possess any firearms and he cannot contact any students or staff at Rochester area schools, or his co-conspirator Donald Robin Jr. 

He must also complete his GED within the first eighteen months of his probation, and do ninety hours of community service, as well as enter a program to address his substance abuse issues-- all of which his defense attorneys hope will keep him on the straight-and-narrow. 

“He gets a second chance at his life, he gets to go forward with his GED, with community service and that structure that this kid needs," said Bauer. 

And while it's not exactly what the prosecution hoped for-- they too hope Schultz's probation will help him re-enter society, though Marrs cautioned: "If they don’t, and they get in trouble and violate—the state will be seeking a full revocation and they can sit in prison for the next seventeen, twenty years.”

Schultz is relocating to Michigan-- though his probation will still be through Fulton County.