Driver gets more than 6 years in prison in death of Sharon Schuman

A 52-year-old Eugene architect will spend six years and three months in prison after driving under the influence and killing Sharon Schuman, a professional musician and former University of Oregon professor well-known for her service to the community.

Scott Stolarczyk appeared at his Wednesday, April 8, sentencing hearing in a green jail uniform, his hands and ankles shackled. Lane County Sheriff’s Office deputies took him into custody April 2 after a Lane County jury found him guilty of second-degree manslaughter and DUII in connection in the collision that killed Schuman, who was jogging on the barked Amazon Trail.

Stolarczyk’s blood alcohol content was 0.196% about 40 minutes after the fatal April 23, 2025, crash. That is more than twice the legal limit of 0.08%. Stolarczyk’s vehicle left Amazon Parkway between 9:40 a.m. and 9:45 a.m., traveled 170 feet through tall grass before going airborne and striking Schuman, 79, according to trial testimony.

His defense attorney, John Kolego, told Lane County Circuit Judge Debra Vogt that Stolarczyk had “never been in trouble before,” referring to a lack of criminal history.

The 75-month sentence for Stolarczyk followed state law under what is known as Measure 11, a 1994 ballot measure that established minimum mandatory sentences for certain crimes.

“You will serve each and every day,” Vogt told Stolarczyk.

He will also serve six months in jail and must pay a $1,000 fine for the DUII conviction, with that time to run alongside his prison sentence. Stolarczyk will then be under three years of post-prison supervision. His driver’s license will be revoked for life.

Rebecca Schuman, 49, daughter of Sharon Schuman, told the court she spent the last year “haunted” by Stolarczyk, whom she saw “countless times” in passing because her home was “five houses away” from his apartment.

She and her brother, Ben Schuman, a resident of Austin, Texas, attended all three days of Stolarcyk’s trial. Ben Schuman observed Wednesday’s sentencing hearing via a remote video link but did not speak.

“Now I can begin the difficult work of putting my life back together, and so should he,” Rebecca Schuman told the court, saying she found herself “compelled toward mercy.”

“He is by my reckoning the luckiest person in this courtroom, so my suggestion is he not squander this gift of life,” Schuman said.

Stolarczyk also spoke during the sentencing hearing.

“There are not words I can say to be able to fully apologize for what I’ve done to Ms. Schuman and her family and my family and friends. I take full responsibility for my actions and I hope to come out of this a better person,” Stolarczyk said.

On mercy

Rebecca Schuman’s statement in court began with lines from William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” — “my mother’s favorite play,” she said — and ended with her translating into English lyrics from the “Lacrimosa” portion of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem, traditionally sung in Latin.

“My mother didn’t believe in God, but she believed in Mozart,” said Schuman, 49, an assistant teaching professor of English at the University of Oregon. Her mother taught literature from 1995 until 2007 in UO’s Clark Honors College.

Both classic works reflect on mercy and judgment, and Schuman in her seven-minute statement touched on those themes as she described her mother in loving terms and, at times, spoke angrily about her loss.

Sharon Schuman “loved this community and loved jogging on Amazon Trail,” Rebecca Schuman said, describing her mother as someone who “provided all manner of irreplaceable support to me and my beautiful daughter.”

Stolarczyk “has, by force of sheer dumb luck, stolen for himself the last years of my mother’s life, a life she worked so diligently to preserve even as he did his level best to flush his own toilet, along with so much metabolized alcohol,” Schuman said.

About the trial, in which Kolego argued to jurors that the crash resulted from a coughing fit that caused Stolarczyk to pass out, Schuman said that had Stolarczyk walked free, “I cannot say that I would have survived that moment intact.”

But even with those thoughts, she spoke of turning to compassion.

“For the past year, I’ve assumed that when this moment came, if it came, I would use my gifts with the poison pen to make Mr. Stolarczyk wish he were dead. Instead, I find myself compelled toward mercy,” Schuman said.

She said Stolarczyk will be at an age upon his prison release that, in her mother’s life, was a time when she taught full-time, played in three orchestras and was “running literal marathons,” along with volunteering.

Stolarczyk “must first admit he has a disease” and “enter into real, sincere treatment on the inside,” Schuman said, calling for him to “search inside of himself until he relocates what is left of his soul.”

Schuman said she asked of Stolarczyk “only that he takes his gift of life and he makes amends to my mother and he does what she can’t anymore: live.”

Memorial event

After the hearing, Schuman said she’s organizing an April 23 community event on the Amazon Trail. 

The memorial event begins at 9 a.m. and will have a moment of silence at 9:45 a.m. followed by an optional mile to “run/walk/roll.” Walkers and runners are to gather on the Amazon Trail opposite of East 25th Avenue, while those with mobility aids may gather near East 24th Avenue.

“It’s mostly a gathering, but I might have some QR codes there” to raise funds for various causes, Schuman said. “She would have wanted that,” Schuman said of her mother.

Schuman wore black during the trial, doing so for multiple reasons, she said, including as a tribute to her mother, who wore black while performing in orchestra pits.

“This whole thing has been tragic,” Schuman said, describing how she also wanted to “fade into the background as much as I possibly could.”

She chose differently for the sentencing hearing, however, wearing a black dress with a floral print.

“It’s blooming flowers out of the darkness,” Schuman said, calling it a symbolic choice.