In the quiet community of Junction City, Kansas, the holiday spirit was shattered by a grim discovery on Christmas Day 2018. Jenna Marie Schafer, a 31-year-old woman, was found deceased in her home on Grant Avenue from an apparent gunshot wound. Schafer, a mother of two daughters, was also pregnant at the time of her death.
The investigation into her death quickly uncovered a sinister plot.
Authorities alleged that her killing was not a random act of violence, but a calculated murder-for-hire. Within days, the investigation led to the arrests of two men: Dion Jamel Green and Mashaun Jay Baker. Prosecutors charged both with capital murder, contending that Baker had hired Green to kill Schafer. The tragic event unfolded sometime between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Green was taken into custody on Christmas Day, the same day Schafer's body was discovered, and Baker was arrested on January 2nd of the following year.
As the case progressed, a third individual, Jeremiah Joseph Grubb, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit capital murder in connection with Schafer's death. While executing a search warrant related to the case, police also arrested another woman on drug charges, though her direct involvement in the murder plot was not specified.
Ultimately, Dion Jamal Green pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Jenna Schafer and her unborn child. He confessed to law enforcement that he had left a party with Schafer with the intention of killing her and was promised a payment of $1,000 by Mashaun Baker to carry out the act. Green was sentenced to consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole for 25 years. The Kansas Supreme Court later upheld his sentence.
