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Last updated on Wednesday, June 10, 2015
(BLOOMFIELD) - Aaron L. Schaffer, who was acquitted of the murder of Shan Bowers, is back in jail.
Schaffer was arrested Monday night on a warrant after he allegedly took another man's vehicle without permission, parked it and then punctured all the tires.
When police confronted Schaffer they say he was behaving suspiciously and lied to police.
Schaffer is facing felony charges of obstruction of justice, auto theft and misdemeanor charges of false and criminal mischief.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Linton Police officer Paul Clark was on patrol early Sunday morning near Murphy Oil and Walmart when he saw a vehicle parked near the gas station, with two men near the vehicle. Clark said the situation looked suspicious because the station was closed. As the officers approached, Clark recognized Schaffer as one of the men, and recognized the vehicle as belonging to Schaffer.
As the officer got closer to the station, the two men got into Schaffer's vehicle and left the parking lot, travelled west and turned into another parking lot, then travelled back to the Walmart parking lot.
Police stopped the vehicle as it pulled into the fire lane in front of the store and spoke to Schaffer and the other man identified as David McNeal.
McNeal told police that Schaffer had taken McNeal's vehicle and parked it near Murphy Oil, but that his vehicle was gone. Both men told police they were unsure if someone had taken the vehicle in jest, or if someone had stolen it.
At 2:15 a.m. Sunday, McNeal reported the vehicle stolen and that Schaffer was the last person who had drove the vehicle. McNeal told police that Schaffer was with him and his girlfriend when they had went to Walmart in his 1992 Geo Tracker. But when the couple went inside the store Schaffer stayed in the vehicle.
Schaffer told police that while he was waiting on the couple to exit the store "he got paranoid because of his recent experiences". Schaffer told police that while he was waiting he had spoke to a woman and then was verbally accosted by an unknown male making vague statements that Schaffer found threatening. Schaffer told police he eventually "got so scared that he fled the fire lane in front of Walmart and parked McNeal's Tracker in the parking lot of Murphy Oil, tossed the keys into the floorboard and ran to his house on foot."
Schaffer resides on 9th Street NE in Linton.
Police, who reviewed video surveillance footage, say Schaffer is being untruthful.
The video showed McNeal's Tracker, being driven by Schaffer, pull away from the fire lane, exit the parking lot near Burger King and then turn west at the stoplight.
Police found the Tracker near Camelot Court with all of the tires punctured including the spare tire on the back of the vehicle.
After being questioned by police, Schaffer finally admitted to taking the Tracker, puncturing the tires and then fleeing.
Schaffer was previously released from the Greene County Jail on March 13 when he was found not guilty of murder and not guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Michael Shan Bowers in April of 2014. Schaffer admitting to killing Bower, his brother-in-law, but said he did it in self defense. The jury agreed Schaffer acted in self-defense.
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