Man Gets 30 Years In Strangulation

YAKIMA

Timothy Schaaf received a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison yesterday for the strangulation of a 17-year-old girl he picked up hitchhiking earlier this year.

Schaaf became a suspect in the June 21 death only after his fiancee, now his wife, Joelle Kremnetz, noticed he was acting strangely and alerted police.

At an emotional hearing, Gary Robillard, father of the victim, Tamara Robillard, said Schaaf, 25, should receive the death penalty.

Schaaf had been charged with aggravated first-degree murder. But he entered an Alford plea to a charge of first-degree murder, not admitting guilt but acknowledging that the preponderance of evidence was against him.

The victim was killed after she left a party early on the morning of June 21. A bicyclist discovered her body alongside Yakima River Canyon the next day.