The two Lincoln people facing charges in connection to the kidnapping and killing of 23-year-old Carly Schaaf nearly two years ago have pleaded guilty to unrelated federal gun charges.
Appearing by video at a hearing Friday, Rachel Pageler pleaded guilty to a firearms conspiracy and was set for sentencing in April.
Joesef Barraza previously pleaded guilty to a gun conspiracy and possession of firearms to further drug trafficking and is set for sentencing next month.
Both are 26.
Last year, while already in jail on the federal charges, state prosecutors charged them in Schaaf's death: Barraza with first-degree murder, kidnapping and three counts of first-degree sexual assault; and Pageler with kidnapping and accessory to the murder.
Schaaf was last seen alive May 17, 2021, near her family's home near Bryan West Campus. Her mother reported her missing two days later.
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Investigators ultimately found her remains in a wooded area at Pawnee Lake west of Lincoln on June 10, 2021, about a week after law enforcement served a federal search warrant at the apartment Barraza and Pageler shared near downtown as part of the drug and gun investigation.
Schaaf had been stabbed. But an autopsy determined she died of acute intoxication by diphenhydramine, an antihistamine, and methamphetamine, as well as asphyxia because of smothering, according to court records.
State charges related to Schaaf's killing followed the discovery of her body.
At a news conference announcing it, police said they believed that Barraza had kidnapped Schaaf and sexually assaulted her and two others and that Pageler, his girlfriend, took part in the kidnapping.
But the case has been on hold while the federal charges moved forward.
In the plea agreement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Woods said between July 1, 2020, and the day of his arrest, June 4, 2021, Barraza, who couldn't legally buy guns, had Pageler buy them for him, something called a straw purchase.
Sometimes she used his email address and he was with her when she bought them. Once, when she tried to buy two guns in September 2020, an employee saw Barraza give Pageler money to buy them and stopped the sale.
The guns he did get, Barraza illegally sold or traded to teen members of the No Name Demons gang in Lincoln or kept to protect himself from being robbed of meth and marijuana he sold, Woods said.
She said on Nov. 20, 2020, the same day FBI agents and Lincoln police investigators served 12 arrest warrants for No Name Demons gang members and searched six homes connected to them, Pageler reported a number of firearms she'd bought stolen, including a pink .380 Ruger and a blue SCCY handgun.
But Woods said texts showed Barraza had been selling the guns and drugs.
Snapchat evidence showed the guns had been used for "licks" and rival gang shootings and threats, she said.