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Eric Matthew Schultz, 35, was acquitted of second-degree murder in Chantal Rea's death on Thursday, September 28, 2017, after a nearly weeklong trial in Macomb County Circuit Court in Michigan. The jury deliberated for about 12 hours over three days. Judge Diane Druzinski allowed jurors to consider manslaughter over the defense's objection, but they convicted him of neither charge.

Rea, 48, of St. Clair Shores, was found dead just before 8 a.m. on Friday, October 14, 2016, in the back seat of her 2003 Buick Century. It was parked sideways in a driveway a few houses down from Schultz's home on Cloverleaf Lane, near South River Road. The car was in reverse, had crossed several lawns and had blood throughout it. Rea had a head cut containing glass shards and had bled to death. Her blood alcohol content was 0.38 percent. Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said investigators believed her injuries occurred inside a house on Cloverleaf.

Schultz, of Harrison Township in Macomb County, was 34 when charged in October 2016. Early reports called him Rea's boyfriend; his trial lawyers said they were platonic friends, and she was also described as his drinking companion. He was on probation for a felony drunken driving conviction and was not supposed to drink. On Thursday, October 13, 2016, they drank at his home. He told police they consumed more than half a gallon of vodka over about eight hours. About 11:30 p.m., a neighbor saw Rea trying to drive away and called 911. A sheriff's deputy responded but did not find her car.

Schultz was taken into custody on October 14. His blood alcohol content was 0.23 percent more than eight hours after the incident. Photographs taken that day showed no injuries to his hands, and pieces of a broken glass were found in his house. On Monday, October 17, 2016, he was arraigned in 41-B District Court on one count of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, with bond set at $750,000. Investigators said the charge could be raised after the autopsy; he was later tried for second-degree murder.

During his interview with sheriff's detectives after being taken into custody, Schultz was read his rights. He said he probably should get an attorney but continued talking. He said Rea fell and hit her head on the floor near the laundry room, bled heavily and did not want an ambulance. He said he did not call one because he was on probation and had been drinking. He denied striking her. He said he pushed her car door shut when she tried to get out and reached inside to shift the car as she backed up and down his driveway, but denied driving it. Near the end, he said he guessed he needed an attorney. Jurors rewatched the interview recording during deliberations.

At the September 2017 trial before Druzinski, Assistant Prosecutor William Cataldo argued that Schultz struck Rea with a highball glass and made her drive away while bleeding. Defense lawyers George Drosis and David Gorcyca argued that she fell or rolled onto broken glass on the floor. Medical Examiner Dr. Mary Pietrangelo testified that Rea suffered two blunt-force blows. Defense pathologist Dr. Ljubisa Dragovic testified that the shallow wound was more consistent with her rolling onto glass. Schultz did not testify.

There was no conviction and no sentence in Rea's death. Schultz had been jailed for nearly a year. After the verdict, he remained held on a $50,000 bond for a probation violation, with a hearing set for October 19, 2017.

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Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.