The Cowboy | Icarus | S5-E6

From Audible Originals, I'm Laura Beal, and this is Dr. Death: The Cowboy.

This is episode six, Icarus.

At the federal courthouse in Billings, Montana, in the winter of 2017, prosecutor Colin Rubich took his seat in a small meeting room.

Facing him across the table was defense attorney John Smith.

Rubich knew him well.

John Smith was a pain in my butt.

He would fight for his clients, quibbling over the smallest details, any prosecutor's nightmare, and now he'd been hired by Dr. Schneider to fight five charges of bankruptcy fraud.

Rubich assumed that they were there to talk about a deal, but-

John's position was we were likely gonna go to trial.

Rubich tried to level with him.

The evidence was overwhelming.

John, if I were in your position, I would not want to go to trial.

You've gotta know that if you go to trial, a lot of the ugly facts in this case, they're gonna more likely come out.

Rubich looked for a sign that he'd gotten through to him.

He would give the non-answer, which is, "Yeah, yeah.

Well, I understand what you're saying, and I'll talk to my client."

To Rubich, the exchange said everything about the man at the center of the case.

It all goes back to John Schneider's inability to believe that he's ever really done anything wrong.

Now, when you're in a defense attorney in that position, it's complicated, right? Because they are your boss to a certain extent, and so you are given marching orders.

Rubich had once been a defense attorney himself.

The biggest complication factor is your defendant, and I think Schneider was a huge complication because nothing could ever be Dr. Schneider's fault.

As the weeks went on, Dr. Schneider held firm, insisting through his attorney that he was innocent, until Dr. Schneider had a sudden change of heart.