Jonathan Schmidt pleaded guilty to aggravated murder in the killing of Marcia VanDruten.

The plea is the admission. The sentence is the hearing that has not been held. WTOL says prosecutors will ask Judge Michael Goulding to dismiss five remaining charges on Nov. 23, and that aggravated murder can bring life without parole or life with parole eligibility after 20, 25 or 30 years. The Blade's courts brief spells her Van Druten, names Fox Hollow Court, and says he broke in. WTOL's account of what prosecutors told the court is a smashed window in a back door, and a crime-scene photo of a bashed-in back door.

Jonathan Schmidt, 36, pleaded guilty Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, to one count of aggravated murder and one count of aggravated burglary in the April 15 killing of his mother-in-law, Marcia VanDruten, 68, inside her Sylvania home, WTOL reported. He withdrew earlier not-guilty pleas. WTOL reported the agreement calls for prosecutors to ask the court to dismiss the remaining five charges at sentencing, and that he agreed to be classified as a violent offender and to enroll in Ohio's violent offender database. Prosecutors told Judge Michael Goulding that her family agreed with the resolution, WTOL reported. The station reported he faces life in prison without parole, or life with parole eligibility after 20, 25 or 30 years, plus additional time on the burglary count. Sentencing is set for Nov. 23 at 9 a.m. before Goulding. The Blade's courts brief reported the same two pleas and spelled her Marcia Van Druten. It said he broke into her home on Fox Hollow Court in Sylvania. WTOL does not give the street. WTOL spells the name VanDruten through most of its story and Van Druten in the prosecutor's statement. A guilty plea to those two counts is what he entered. The five other counts have not been dismissed yet. The judge has not imposed a sentence.

What happened inside the house, in WTOL's account, is what prosecutor Michael Loisel told the court he would have presented at a trial. WTOL reported investigators found a note on Schmidt's phone, created March 25 and last updated March 28, about when his estranged wife, Kinsey, would be away and when her mother would be home alone, and that he also considered a disguise, killing himself, or setting the house on fire. The station reported a witness told investigators that in December 2025 Schmidt said he could not promise he would not hurt VanDruten or her daughter and discussed buying a crowbar, and that another witness reported he had said he wanted to kill her that same month. WTOL reported that on April 15 he drove from downtown Toledo to a Lowe's on Central Avenue, that video showed him buying a hammer and two crowbars, and that all three were later found at the house. It reported license-plate cameras and other video put his red Toyota Corolla in the neighborhood, and that a camera behind the house recorded breaking glass, then VanDruten screaming his name and calling for her husband, and then the screaming stopped. WTOL reported investigators determined he smashed a window in a back door. It also reported prosecutors showed the family a photograph of a bashed-in back door. Those are two descriptions of the entry in the same station's story. The Blade's brief says he broke in, and it does not name the tools. WTOL reported she was found dead in the living room with a crowbar on her body, that prosecutors described blood across the room, including on blinds and a kitchen table, some of it seven feet from where she was found, and that the Lucas County Coroner's Office found multiple blunt-force injuries, said she had been struck repeatedly and likely stomped, and ruled the death a homicide. That is the proffer. It is what Loisel said the evidence would have been.

WTOL reported prosecutors also played a body-camera recording from the call Schmidt made to his father after his mother told police he was driving erratically and might be intoxicated. The station reported that on the recording he admitted beating VanDruten severely. It reported he also called an off-duty officer who was a friend, met that officer, and acknowledged buying the weapons at Lowe's and attacking her while she sat in a chair until she stopped making noise. Monroe County sheriff's deputies arrested him the morning of April 16 at the LaSalle Bar in LaSalle, Michigan, WTOL reported. The station reported he was still in clothing from the earlier video, that glass was in his hood and pockets, that the Lowe's receipt was in his vehicle, and that DNA testing put both his DNA and hers on a crowbar and blood with both of their DNA on his pants. WTOL reported messages prosecutors read in court, including one from the day of the killing in which he wrote that he could not talk and that he might soon be dead while he waited to see whether she died first, and a later message, about his estranged wife's mother, that they had played games and that he had finally shown her some of his toys, that he was happy she remembered his name, and that she then became quiet. Those messages are what WTOL says prosecutors presented. They are not a transcript this account has seen.

WTOL reported the killing came during Schmidt's divorce and custody case with Kinsey, that VanDruten had been subpoenaed by his divorce lawyer and had filed an affidavit, and that Sylvania Det. Sgt. Justin Music testified at an earlier hearing that Schmidt told a Metroparks Toledo officer he had "snapped." The station reported the trial had been moved to Dec. 7 after defense attorney Peter Rost told the court discovery had grown to 2,240 items, and that Wednesday's plea took the trial off the calendar. Lucas County Prosecuting Attorney Julia Bates said afterward, "While this guilty plea cannot undo what happened, it brings accountability for the death of Marcia Van Druten." She credited digital evidence and thanked Sylvania police, Metroparks Toledo rangers and the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, WTOL reported. The plea is in. The Nov. 23 hearing is when the judge decides the term, and when prosecutors have said they will ask to dismiss the other five counts. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.