A 52-year-old man who killed a 76-year-old Arizona pastor and left his body in a position resembling a crucifixion has been sentenced to life in prison plus 102 years, the culmination of a case investigators say was part of a broader plot to murder religious leaders across the country.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell announced on August 14 that Adam Sheafe received the sentence for the first-degree murder of Pastor Bill Schonemann, the longtime leader of New River Bible Chapel, a small congregation north of Phoenix. Schonemann, a 76-year-old Navy veteran who served during Vietnam, was found dead in his home on April 28, 2025, by members of his own congregation. His arms were outstretched in a position described as similar to a crucifixion.
Sheafe did not stumble into this. Investigators determined that Schonemann's killing was part of a deliberate scheme Sheafe called "Operation First Commandment", a plan to murder 14 Christian leaders across 10 states. Breitbart reported that Schonemann was found with his hands nailed to the wall and a crown of thorns placed on his head. Sheafe confessed on camera and, at one point, refused to apologize.
Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan called it "probably one of the most bizarre cases I have ever seen in my 40 years with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office."
Schonemann was not a public figure in any national sense. He led New River Bible Chapel for a quarter century, according to the New York Post. He served in the U.S. Navy during Vietnam. At sentencing, a family member described him plainly:
"Truly a one-of-a-kind man. He served our country in the Navy during Vietnam. He was a devoted husband and a loving father, a business owner, and a mentor. He was a kind and gentle soul."
That a man like Schonemann, quiet, faithful, decades deep in his community, became the target of a religiously obsessed killer is the kind of crime that defies easy explanation. But the facts of the case, laid out across more than a year of legal proceedings, paint a clear picture of premeditation and fanaticism.
Sheafe drove from Phoenix to New River on April 28, 2025, specifically to carry out the killing. Two days earlier, he had broken into another location and stolen a truck, a crime also charged against him in the indictment. He was indicted in July 2025 on multiple charges connected to both the murder and the break-in. The case that followed was as unusual as the crime itself, in part because Sheafe seemed determined to control its outcome.
In March, Sheafe attempted to plead no contest to the charges. Prosecutors rejected the plea. He then tried to plead guilty in a way that would move the case toward a death sentence. The judge refused that too.
Sheafe, who represented himself at points during the proceedings, was blunt about what he wanted. Fox News reported that he told the court:
"Put me on death row, set the execution date for right now. The victims want it. The victim's families want it. I want it, and the taxpayers want it."
He also said, "We're dragging this out in the interest of justice," and indicated he wanted the case resolved "so we can move on with our lives." The casual phrasing, "move on with our lives", from a man who had taken someone else's life in the most grotesque fashion imaginable, captured the disconnect at the center of the case.
In another courtroom statement, Sheafe was even more direct about the nature of the crime. The New York Post reported his words:
"It's an undisputable fact that the crime was heinous in nature. I intended it to be heinous."
That is not remorse. That is a man describing his own actions with something closer to satisfaction. The court, to its credit, did not give Sheafe the ending he scripted for himself.
Investigators learned that Schonemann's murder was not meant to be an isolated act. Sheafe had devised what he called "Operation First Commandment," a plan to kill 14 Christian leaders across 10 states. The name itself, a reference to the biblical commandment that God alone shall be worshipped, points to a warped religious fixation rather than any coherent theology.
Sheafe's father told reporters that his son had become obsessed with the Old Testament. Sheafe had a large tattoo of a Hebrew word for God on his neck. The fixation was visible, literal, and, as the crime proved, dangerous. Breitbart reported that Sheafe had also planned additional attacks at the Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona, a well-known Catholic landmark built into the red rocks of central Arizona, but was arrested on a separate charge before he could carry them out.
Whether any of the other 14 alleged targets were contacted, warned, or harmed remains unclear from available court records. The scope of the plot, however, underscores how close this case came to being far worse. In a country that has seen mass violence met with severe sentences, the life-plus-102-year term ensures Sheafe will never have the chance to act on whatever remains of his plan.
In June, Sheafe finally pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other charges. With the guilty plea, the death penalty was removed as a sentencing option. Sheafe's change of course came after a personal loss: his father and stepmother died in a plane crash, and the experience reportedly prompted a shift in his willingness to face execution.
At sentencing, Sheafe struck a different tone from his earlier defiance. He apologized, a reversal from his earlier on-camera refusal, and told the court:
"I now recognize that my method of delivering my message, that our heavenly father alone deserves all praise and all glory, was severely flawed."
The word "method" does a lot of work in that sentence. Sheafe did not renounce his beliefs or his stated mission. He called the execution of a 76-year-old pastor, hands nailed to a wall, a crown of thorns on his head, a flawed "method." The distinction between condemning the act and merely regretting the approach is one the court apparently noted. The sentence handed down, life in prison plus 102 years, leaves no ambiguity about how the justice system viewed his conduct.
Schonemann's family members and close friends spoke at the sentencing hearing. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office issued a press release confirming the sentence. The case, which began with a congregation arriving at their pastor's home to find him dead in a scene of deliberate sacrilege, ended with a courtroom full of people who had loved him.
Violent crimes against the vulnerable, including horrific acts in Arizona, have tested the state's criminal justice system repeatedly in recent years. In this case, the system delivered a sentence that matches the severity of the crime.
New River Bible Chapel lost more than a pastor. Schonemann had led the congregation for 25 years. He was a Vietnam-era Navy veteran, a husband, a father, a business owner. The family member who spoke at sentencing called him "a kind and gentle soul." He was 76 years old, a man in the final chapter of a long life of service, killed by a stranger acting on a delusion.
Cases like this one, and other acts of shocking violence against the defenseless, remind the public why the justice system exists in the first place: not to rehabilitate every offender, but to protect the innocent and ensure that those who commit the most grievous acts are permanently removed from society.
Sheafe will spend the rest of his life in an Arizona prison. The 14 religious leaders he allegedly planned to target are, as far as the public record shows, still alive. Schonemann is not.
The broader questions, how a man spirals from religious obsession into a multi-state murder plot, whether the other targets were ever warned, and what additional charges may have been folded into the sentencing, remain unanswered. The case file may hold more. For now, the facts on the record are enough: a faithful pastor was killed in his own home, and the man who did it will never walk free.
Some crimes are so deliberate, so calculated, and so devoid of conscience that the only just answer is a cell and a locked door. In a country where violent offenders too often face lenient consequences, Maricopa County got this one right.
