Lawrence woman gets 2 years of probation for serving as a lookout in December Walmart robbery

A Douglas County judge on Friday ordered a 21-year-old Lawrence woman to serve two years on probation for serving as a lookout in a December robbery at Walmart, 3300 Iowa.

District Judge Michael Malone ordered Jadin M. Schmutz to not use drugs or alcohol as a condition of her probation. Schmutz in August pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit robbery.

Lonnie S. Schaefer, 23, and William O. Patterson, 19, have been convicted in connection with the robbery.

Prosecutors also accused five people, including Schmutz, of serving as lookouts for the robbery. Schmutz is one of three of those five suspects to be convicted.

Her defense attorney, Carl Folsom, told Malone Friday that Schmutz was under duress when she and her husband, Andrew Dean Schmutz, chose to help Schaefer and Patterson because they had financial struggles and feared what Schaefer and Patterson would do to them if they didn’t participate. Folsom said her husband received the couple’s share of the money from the robbery.

“That also shows Ms. Schmutz was a minor actor in the conspiracy,” Folsom said. “She wasn’t even given her own cut of the money from the robbery.”

Malone told Schmutz she faces 13 months in prison if she’s found to violate terms of her probation.