Husband, Second Man to Stand Trial in Jogger’s Death

Two men were ordered Wednesday to stand trial on charges that one paid the other to kill his wife.

Municipal Judge Terry J. Knoepp ordered Charles Richard Schmidt, 28, and Noel Patrick Armstrong, 22, to appear in Superior Court on Aug. 12, when a trial date will be set.

The pair are charged with killing Patricia Schmidt, a 27-year-old Navy nurse who was fatally shot June 15, 1989, as she jogged with her husband along Quarry Road in Spring Valley. In addition to murder, Schmidt is charged with two counts of solicitation for murder.

Investigators at first thought that Patricia Schmidt was killed in a hit-and-run accident, but an autopsy uncovered a .22-caliber bullet in her brain. Investigators then believed she was killed in a random drive-by shooting.

Schmidt became a suspect after one of two Mexican men he allegedly attempted to hire to kill his wife contacted authorities. Prosecutors said Schmidt offered the man $400 and provided him with maps and a photo of the victim.

After the men turned down the offer, prosecutors said, Schmidt offered Armstrong $1,000 to commit the crime. But, after the killing, he received only $400, a flight jacket and a pair of combat boots, according to the pair’s own confessions.

After his wife’s death, Schmidt collected $75,000 from two life insurance policies.

Both defendants were arrested in early May after telling detectives of the plot, authorities said. During the hearing, Knoepp overruled objections by defense attorneys and privately read the incriminating statements that both men had given investigators.

Armstrong’s mother was briefly taken into custody Tuesday after she refused to testify about a phone conversation she had had with her son soon after he was arrested. Marion Armstrong purportedly told detectives that her son had confessed to her about his role in the killing.

Marion Armstrong refused to take the witness stand and would not even be sworn to tell the truth.

She later agreed to testify after Knoepp ordered her to jail for five days in lieu of $10,000 bail.

Schmidt, a Navy corpsman, and Armstrong, a resident of Reno, Nev., are being held in lieu of $3 million bail each.