A jury has found David Schneider, a former volunteer gymnastics coach at Washington gym Kids in Motion, guilty of five counts of child molestation after he inappropriately touched at least five young girls.
The victims, who were gymnasts at Kids in Motion, and their families sobbed with emotion and relief as the court clerk read the five verdicts around 7:30 p.m. By that point, the jury had spent over five and a half hours deliberating. Schneider showed little reaction to the verdicts; he remained straight-faced even as he was put in handcuffs and escorted out of the courtroom.
On one of the charges, the jury decided not to convict him with a higher charge of statutory sodomy.
This verdict came on the final day of a four-day jury trial. Click here for coverage of the first, second and third days of a trial.
Three of the victims testified over the course of the trial that Schneider, who had no children enrolled at Kids in Motion and had little experience in gymnastics prior to becoming a coach, had, on multiple occasions, touched them inappropriately over or under their clothing while he was helping them perform an exercise called the oversplits. A fourth testified that he attempted to touch her inappropriately and that he put his hand inside her shorts. The fifth victim did not testify. The incidents took place around 2012 to 2013 and the victims were between the ages of 8 to 13.
While the alleged victims publicly identified themselves in court, The Missourian does not identify victims of sexual assault or other sex-related crimes. The Missourian is also not identifying the family members of victims who testified in order to protect the alleged victims' privacy.
The jury also heard from a Washington Police Department detective who investigated the case, a former gymnastics coach who coached alongside Schneider and the owner of Kids in Motion, which has since shuttered. The prosecution also showed videos of interviews conducted by the Children's Advocacy Center of East Central Missouri with the girls immediately after the accusations arose and video of an interview Schneider did with police where he admits his hand went into girls' shorts multiple times, but claimed it was unintentional.
Immediately prior to their deliberations, the jury heard closing arguments from both the defense and the prosecution.
The prosecution, represented by Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Michael Hayes, spent the closing arguments emphasizing the bravery of the victims who testified.
"These four days have been tough for them, but they have been carrying this weight for four years," Hayes said. The case has been ongoing since the charges were first filed in 2018.
The crux of the defense's argument was attempting to poke holes in the victims' testimony and alleging that they were contradicting themselves on specific details. Hayes addressed that in his arguments.
"It may be that she didn't want to say, this 22-year-old woman, that when she was younger, for two years, her coach was putting his finger up her vagina to a room full of strangers," he said of one of the girls. "She didn't want to be a part of this. She wanted to put this behind her, but she came anyway."
He also zeroed in on a couple moments in the police interview video the jury watched, particularly when Schneider is asked by police why, if he knew he was touching this girls while assisting them stretch — by his account unintentionally — he never changed the way he did it.
"It happened over and over and over again, but he didn't change the way he did it," Hayes said. "Why? Because the purpose was to touch these little girls."
He emphasized that Schneider admitted his hand went down their shorts in that interview.
Hayes argued that touching young girls underneath their clothes "doesn't happen unintentionally."
Schneider's attorney Daniel Briegel continued his arguments that the girls were contradicting themselves.
He also questioned why the parents would send their children back to Kids in Motion after they told them that Schneider had touched them inappropriately and why it took the parents years to report it to the police.
"If this happened, why didn't they tell somebody," Briegel said.
The parents did reach out to Piper Hoemann, the owner of the gym, and told her of their concerns. The parents testified in court that Hoemann encouraged them to not go to the police. The investigation into Schneider only began after one of the victims disclosed the incidents to her school guidance counselor.
Briegel also doubted that one of the victims, who said she was too young — she was 13 — to understand that what he was doing was wrong, really didn't understand that it was wrong. "That is absolutely unbelievable."
Briegel also urged the jury to believe the testimony of Sheila Payne, another coach at Kids in Motion, who testified that she was at every practice with Schneider during the time frame in question and never saw anything concerning happen.
"Do you believe her testimony?" Briegel asked. "I found her to be absolutely credible."
Hayes pushed back vehemently on that in his response. He called Payne's testimony "nothing short of a conspiracy to craft a fraudulent defense for him." He also addressed the validity of Hoemann's testimony, asserting that the two testified in an effort to protect Hoemann's family's business — Hoemann's daughter's has since opened a new gymnastics business — and protect their friend.
"How many times did (Hoemann) perjure herself?" he asked. "Over and over again, I shoved her lies in her face and that bubble burst."
After the trial, Briegel, Hayes and Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Matthew Becker declined to comment.
Schneider's sentence will be determined by 20th Circuit Judge Craig Hellmann during a hearing scheduled for May 20. He could be sentenced to as much as life in prison with parole eligibilty.
