Former Vernon man denied statutory release from prison, called risk to women

A former Vernon man due for a second trial in the killing of a Japanese woman visiting Canada in 2016 meets the definition of a psychopath and remains a risk to women so he was denied statutory release.

William Schneider, 53, refused to take part in the National Parole Board of Canada hearing this week to determine his eligibility for release after serving two-thirds of his 3.5 year sentence for causing an indignity to the body of Natsumi Kogawa. He was originally convicted of that charge in 2018 as well as second-degree murder in her death, but the murder charge was overturned on appeal and a new trial ordered.

In September 2016, he was with Kogawa when she died. Whether he killed is still to be determined, but he put her body in a suitcase and hid it in a vacant property. After she was reported missing, he was spotted on video surveillance with her on the day she died and when confronted, he disclosed where her body was, the Parole Board said in his release decision.

But that was only the latest in a lifetime of assault, armed robbery and violence against women going back to 1987. He has admitted to killing cats for pleasure as a youth and threatened to kill his parents. The parole board noted that as an adult, he had a preference for Asian partners, had underlying racist attitudes and primarily targeted Asian victims for robbery and violence.

The Parole Board found he posed a higher risk of committing another crime than most sex offenders and scored as a clinical psychopath in tests.

"The psychologist noted your lack of accountability, callous disregard for the rights of others, poor behavioural controls, and high need for stimulation and excitement,” the board wrote. "In this report, the assessor found you lacked internal controls, have hedonistic tendencies and that you would likely post a risk for violent and/or sexually inappropriate behaviour toward women."

The continued detention order is somewhat unusual considering his crime wasn’t among a list of the most serious offences in the Canadian Criminal Code. Most offenders are released at two-thirds of a sentence with monitoring in place.

He will serve out the rest of his sentence in prison. 

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