A convicted sex offender already serving life in prison without the possibility of parole received a second life sentence Friday for raping a Buckley girl in 1995.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Frank Cuthbertson handed down the sentence to Donald Schneider, 53. Schneider pleaded guilty to first-degree child rape last month.
Forensics technicians last year matched DNA evidence collected in the 1995 rape to Schneider. He was brought back from the state penitentiary in Walla Walla to answer the newest charges against him.
Schneider allegedly took the fourth-grade special education student from a bus stop, then raped her, court records show.
A woman later spotted the girl walking along the Alder Cutoff Road near Springwater Road and stopped to check on her. The girl said a man had picked her up, assaulted her and dropped her off in the woods.
Schneider reportedly told the girl, “I’m a drunk old man and my brain needs help, and I’m going to leave you here so someone can pick you up,” documents state.
“While the defendant is already serving time for a prior crime, we prosecuted this case for two reasons,” Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said. “One, to obtain justice for the victim and the community, and two, so we have an insurance policy to keep a dangerous offender in prison where he belongs.”
In 2007, Schneider was sentenced to life in prison after a jury convicted him of kidnapping and raping a woman in Tacoma.
He also was convicted of second-degree rape and a parole violation in 1982, and of first-degree robbery and second-degree possession of stolen property in 1997, according to the state Department of Corrections.
Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644 adam.lynn@ thenewstribune.com
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