Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 3 New Disturbing Details in Newlywed Nurse's Murder: ‘Deliberately Cruel’

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

Melissa Jubane was murdered last month after she vanished from her apartment complex in Portland, Oregon. Her neighbor, Bryce Schubert, is accused of murdering her. The murder charge Schubert faces was recently upgraded. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy looks at recent updates in the case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: You can binge Criminal Attorney early and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus by clicking our link https://Wondery.fm/LCCrimeFixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Justice for Melissa Jubain! Justice for Melissa Jubain! Community activists demanding justice for a newlywed nurse who vanished from her apartment building, I take a look at three new developments in the murder of Melissa Jubain and why prosecutors are keeping such a tight hold on information in this case. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Melissa Jubain's life was just beginning. She was 32 and working as a nurse in Portland, Oregon, but had just married the love of her life when she was

murdered last month. Police say the man who murdered Melissa, Bryce Schubert, was also a nurse, although there's no indication they were connected through their job. In fact, there's no indication whatsoever that Melissa Jubain knew Bryce Schubert at all, although they were neighbors. Police are remaining very tight-lipped about the case, and so are prosecutors. Schubert appeared in court just last week. The murder charge Schubert faces has been upgraded from second-degree murder to first-degree murder. Schubert has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

He's also charged with kidnapping and abuse of a corpse. Most of the investigative details surrounding the murder have remained sealed from the public. The probable cause affidavit, these weeks later remains sealed. Melissa Jubain's co-workers at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center reported her missing on September 4th, shortly after she didn't show up for work. It just wasn't like her to be late, so they knew that something was certainly wrong. People gathered at Jubain's apartment complex and searched for her. And sadly, three days later on September 7th, police announced that they had found Melissa's remains and that Bryce Schubert had been charged

with her murder and kidnapping. People who live in the area are still in shock. I had spoken with Skylar Talbot, who helped search for Melissa. I can't put into words what type of what kind of loss this is, especially when you think about a place that, you know, many people move here for safety. Right. And just having something like this happen right next door, it hits a little bit too close to home. And, yeah, it's. I don't know i i can't even put it into words to be honest with you but it's um a mix of emotions everything from you know angry and and upset to sad um

but i i think the one thing i'll say is through these type of events this is a city that comes together um and and you know there is some good that's that's come out of that. And I think that, you know, as a city, we need to continue to build on on this momentum as we look to make change because it's been a tough couple of years for the city. So a friend of Melissa's posted about her on TikTok and the loss that she was feeling. Melissa did not deserve any of this and she was taken far too soon. Through everything that is happening, I think one of the things that helps me cope through all this is by sharing

the sweet memories that I have of her. There's so many. She has the sweetest soul in the world. And I wanted to be able to create a space for those that had any interactions with her, those that knew her, had really close relationships with her, just anybody that has any sweet memories of her. If you don't mind sharing that with us so that we can share that with each other and share that with the rest of our family to help us get through this time, I think that would really be great and helpful.

So please tag them, share your stories. I will go first. This picture right here was, I don't even know how old we were. We were in my other cousin's room, Josephine, and we saw a camera and we decided to sit in her room and create a serious photo shoot and take a bunch of pictures. And it was just so much fun. After Melissa's murder, the Oregon Nurses Association held a vigil to remember her and to bring the community together as a way to help people comfort one another. But now, more than a month later, the public still has few details about the crime or a possible motive. Not that knowing would make it make any sense about the crime or a possible motive. Not that knowing would make it make any sense.

The crime is absolutely senseless. We do know that prosecutors filed a document with sentence enhancement factors claiming Schubert was deliberately cruel to Melissa in her final moments. The document stated that Schubert used a weapon that posed a threat of actual violence. Prosecutors claim this degree of harm caused permanent injury to Melissa and is significantly greater than typical for such an offense. Prosecutors also believe the likelihood of rehabilitating Schubert is low, so it's important to ensure the security of the public. Paul Bergeron was the lawyer who could get you out of any sticky situation. Caught selling pirated videos like Queen Latifah?

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And we brought the community to the hearing to show that we are watching this case. We're outing for Melissa, for her family, for our sister, our kakua. We've seen this scenario too many times. We've seen these stories buried and swept under the rug by the justice system. Members of a grassroots organization, Gabriela Portland, attended Schubert's hearing before rallying outside of the Washington County courthouse to demand justice for Melissa Jubain. Our daughters and granddaughters will never be safe so long as violence against women is normalized, tolerated, and accepted. I want to bring in Safa Robinson-Ferrer.

She is a former prosecutor, currently a defense attorney. Thanks so much for coming on. This is a really awful, awful case, Safa. And they are telegraphing, the prosecution is in this case, that this was a really heinous crime. They're going to be asking the jury in this case to go beyond a 30-year sentence if Bryce Schubert is convicted. If know, if he's convicted of this first-degree murder charge and the other crimes, he would be eligible for parole or release after serving 30 years. But the prosecutors are saying there are factors in this case that warrant him being

sentenced beyond that. And that's that this case was, you know, this crime was he was deliberately cruel to Melissa Jubain in this homicide. So what what could that mean? You know, as you put on your former prosecutor hat, because I look at every homicide as as deliberately cruel. I mean, are we what are we talking about or what could that mean as you think about this through the lens of a former prosecutor? You know, in my mind, as I think about this and listen to this, it's essentially that there are factors known by the petition in this case that we say that this particular crime is out of the ordinary of what we would usually see in a typical murder. So it may not be, you know, somebody just getting stabbed or someone strangled. There is something that is specific here that is especially heinous and gruesome that the prosecution is essentially saying we want the jurors to be on that 30 year time frame. And not only that, but this individual is allegedly a threat to the community

based off of whatever the, you know, the actions or the factors or the facts are in this case. We want to protect the community. We don't want to see him having the ability to be released after 30 years. We want him sentenced to life in prison indefinitely. They also talk about in this document that was filed, it's a notice that the prosecutors filed, letting the defense know this is where we're going at trial. We're going to ask the jury to go above and beyond this 30 years. And they said that he used a weapon that posed a threat of actual violence. So, I mean, that could mean any number of things i mean that could be a gun that could be a knife we just don't know at this point absolutely we really don't know at this point and anything that is used in the form of violence can be considered a dangerous instrument

but there's something that's very telling here that says to me that whatever was used whatever weapon was used was used in a manner that is not traditionally used in most homicides or is something that we don't often see used at all in crimes. And that specific factor alone is giving the prosecution a heightened level of concern with respect to this individual and him at some point being back in the community. There's another one of these factors that the prosecutors cite, and they said that the degree of harm caused permanent injury to Melissa, and it's significantly greater than typical for such an offense. So that really makes your mind go to some really dark, dark places. Absolutely, absolutely.

You know, there's gonna be a question of what that is until we get to trial, unless it comes out earlier in a hearing, but definitely something that's very not typical that we would actually usually or often see. And so it does give us pause and it it's significant because, again, the prosecution is moving to go beyond the sentencing guidelines and depart upward from an original sentence

that this individual would have faced, considering some specific aggravating factor. And we don't know the facts as of yet. You know, that physical injury could have taken place before the ultimate death of the victim in this case or prior to her incapacitation. So we don't really know. I know it was a couple days before she was located after she was reported missing. We don't know the timeline as of yet in terms of the cause of death. At what point, you know, was she tortured, for example, how long it took her

to become incapacitated and those sorts of things. So I think that there's going to be a lot of factors that weigh into that. But there is something here that we're not aware of as of yet. That is certainly an aggravating factor that is putting the prosecution in a position to make this request. And we have to keep in mind, he's also charged with kidnapping. So that kind of brings to mind that she was actually taken. And to me, it makes me think she was taken somewhere and held possibly for a period of time. Is that what it brings to mind in your mind?

Absolutely. I think what I learned about this case so far is that the victim and the defendant were actually neighbors or possibly lived in the same apartment complex or something of that sort. We don't know if he had been watching her for a period of time prior to allegedly kidnapping her. But in my mind, what it comes to is that she was kidnapped. There were things that took place. There's some type of torture that took place.

I think he's also charged with abuse of a corpse, ultimately leading to her death. And then if she was already incapacitated, any further injury to her body after she was incapacitated or deceased are also things that are going to be factored in as well for the jury. The prosecutors don't believe Safa. And they're saying in this document that Bryce Schubert, the likelihood of rehabilitating him is very low. That's another factor in this as well. They don't believe he can be rehabilitated. Absolutely. You know, one of the prosecutor's jobs is to protect the community and bring justice. And essentially what that means in a case like this, and if something is allegedly gruesome or heinous as a crime like this, is that going forward, we do not want to see this individual back in the community, back in our streets to victimize yet another innocent individual. So specific to those things, you know, the prosecution is taking

their job serious, not only to prosecute this case and seek justice for the victim, but also to protect individuals in the community from this ever possibly happening again at the hands of this particular defendant. One of the things that is so confounding to people observing this case is the fact that the probable cause document that law enforcement submitted when Bryce Schubert was charged last month, the prosecution asked that that remain sealed because this is an active and ongoing investigation. All investigations are usually active and ongoing as they progress. But that document is still sealed. And it's been more than a month since those charges were filed.

I find that, as somebody who's been covering crime for years and years, highly unusual. You know, this isn't a search warrant affidavit that remains sealed, although those are still sealed. I'm talking about the document submitted to say, hey, look, this is what we have to back up the charges. Why on earth is that still sealed? Because that might answer a lot of questions that people have. How well did he know her? hey, look, this is what we have to back up the charges. Why on earth is that still sealed? Because that might answer a lot of questions that people have. How well did he know her? Did he know her at all? We don't know that. We just know that they were neighbors. We know from dad's Facebook page, he referred to this guy as a stalker. That's all we know.

So why would they keep that document sealed? You know, this is especially a little unusual to get a protector to keep this sealed, specifically the probable cause affidavit for the arrest. But there could be a number of reasons as to why that could happen. Not fully known as of yet, but it could be essentially to protect evidence. Also, considering that this is already what we deem a high-profile case, to protect the investigation as it proceeds forward through trial. We don't want certain information getting out to the public that could cause them to make any sort of judgment prior to potentially sitting as a juror. And also, but more importantly, to protect certain evidence. We also don't know at this point yet if the defendant here was a lone actor or if there was anybody else that was particularly involved. And so if the investigation is ongoing and if there is also a potential for other defendants to be arrested at some point, that could also be a reason why there's a protective order over that.

Well, it's a very sad case and a lot of people are mourning the loss of Melissa G. Bain. And we're going to keep a close eye on this case. Safa, thank you so much for coming on. Safa Robinson-Ferrer, we appreciate it. Thanks for having me. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me.

I'll see you back here next time.