The man who murdered a beloved Arizona pastor and crucified him to a bedroom wall has been given a life sentence with no possibility of parole, after agreeing to a plea deal.
In 2025, Adam Sheafe was captured following an unrelated crime. He proudly confessed that he followed “the spirit” to select Bill Schonemann, a pastor he did not know, as his target.
Sheafe set up a tent near the church, stalked him, broke into his home around 2:00 a.m., killed him, and confessed to screwing Schonemann to the wall studs while placing a crafted crown of thorns on his head. In a later jailhouse interview, he added:
“I was going to start in Phoenix and end in Phoenix, and circle the nation. Ten cities, 14 pastors, 10 states… there are 13 tribes of Israel, so what I wanted to do was execute and crucify 13 priests, and put one of the tribes of Israel in each of their right ears.”
The murderer, who has a large YAHWEH tattoo across his neck, initially insisted:
“I want the death penalty because I want to show that you can’t kill God’s son. The whole story is B.S.”“God commanded us to execute anyone that’s preaching that someone other than Him is God, because it’s that serious. They are claiming that Jesus is God and that somebody other than God is God.”
However, after having a change of heart following the death of his father and mother in a plane crash, Sheafe asked his lawyers to take a plea to avoid the death penalty.
