Darrell Kastel has accepted a plea bargain in the 1979 murder of Mr. Julius Schnoll as I wrote in my previous post. I did not have further details then. I know learned that on August 30, 2010, Kastel was sentenced to 10-15 years for 2nd degree murder as part of a plea deal. He was credited for 810 days time served which means that he could probably be out in 8 to 13 years.
Now that the trials are over, we might be able to learn from the authorities how they finally zoomed in on Hess and Kastel. Vidocq would also like to know what exactly the evidence was that they had collected in this case.
Hess and Kastel killed 62-year-old Julius Schnoll on Jan. 27, 1979, during a botched robbery at the Michigan Great Scott supermarket at 10 Mile and Orchard Lake roads. Police said that on the day of the killing Hess and Kastel climbed inside the store through the store’s air-conditioning duct early in the morning. They herded the four night-shift workers into the break room and hog-tied them with dog leashes and cellophane.
Schnoll, who was a night manager and traveled between two stores, was ordered to open the safe, but Schnoll didn’t know the combination because only the day manager had that information. When the robbers realized that Schnoll couldn’t open the safe, he was shot in the head inside of the break room in front of the rest of the employees.