A NEBRASKA COUPLE WHO STOLE A SOUTH DAKOTA FIRE TRUCK while fleeing the law in March have pleaded guilty in exchange for reduced charges and are facing sentencing this month.

Their flight began when they were being sought for a variety of charges stemming from domestic abuse reports.  Taking their two young children with them, Matthew and Rowena Schade skipped town from Creighton, Nebraska, to avoid arrest.  At the time, they were on parole for a 2004 burglary conviction and the departure was a violation of it.  Their escape took them into South Dakota where, for some odd reason, they abandoned their car and stole a firetruck from the Silver City fire department following a series of break-ins around the town.

Schade family portrait

Eighteen days later they returned to Nebraska and turned themselves in.  Rowena was ordered to serve 4-½ months in jail for her parole violation and Matthew was immediately sentenced to 18 mos. in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Currently both of them are in Rapid City, South Dakota, being sentenced for related charges including the theft of the fire truck.  Judge Merton Tice acknowledged that Rowena was only a passive partner in the crime spree who tried to get away from her husband and he sentenced her to 180 days in jail, with 170 days suspended, and credit for the time served. Tice also ordered Schade to devote 20 percent of her income to restitution until an as-yet-to-be determined amount is repaid.

Matthew has pleaded guilty to grand theft (of the firetruck) and will be sentenced on November 25.

Read the related stories on their whirlwind chase from the law on
The Rapid City Journal HERE and
WOWT-TV Ch. 6 HERE.