Reuschel vs. Reuschel: Stabbing, 30-Year Sentence, and Appeal

The Reuschel vs. Reuschel case is the Florida attempted-murder prosecution of Michael Reuschel, a multimillionaire Gainesville dental business owner who stabbed his wife Susan O’Brien Reuschel at their Haile Plantation home on February 2, 2018, then told police a masked intruder was responsible. Susan survived and identified him as her attacker. In November 2019, a jury convicted him of attempted first-degree murder and four related felonies, and a judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison.¹

What Happened the Night of the Stabbing

Michael and Susan Reuschel had been married since 2007 and by early 2018 were sleeping in separate bedrooms and arguing frequently, particularly over Michael’s daughter Caroline from a prior relationship and the roughly $150,000 her November 2017 wedding at Oheka Castle went over budget. Susan’s last text to her husband that night read, “You have serious boundary issues with your daughter.”²

According to Susan’s trial testimony, Michael came into the guest bedroom where she was lying down, jumped on top of her, and said, “Sue, we’re not getting a divorce. Another man won’t have you.”³ She said he stabbed her in the stomach and neck; one wound went three and a half inches deep, and she injured her hands trying to block the knife.⁴ Susan testified that Michael put the knife in her hand and used it to stab himself in the bicep, then slashed her right wrist and told her they were “just gonna lay here until you die.”

She said she survived by promising him they could work on the marriage. He put the knife down, and she agreed to tell police an intruder was responsible so he would call for help. He waited roughly 25 minutes before dialing 911.⁵ Michael was arrested the next day, February 3, 2018.¹

Why Police Rejected the Intruder Story

Michael told the 911 dispatcher he had been awakened by screams and fought off a man in a black ski mask who stabbed his wife. Investigators found no signs of forced entry, and the home’s security system, which had ten cameras, showed no intruder. The knife came from the couple’s own kitchen set.⁶

Michael eventually admitted at trial that the intruder never existed and that he had shut off the cameras himself. He said he and Susan invented the story together, recalling that he had asked her, “We have a security system and 10 cameras. How are we going to make up a story that’s not on film?”⁷ Prosecutors argued the delay in calling 911 was deliberate. Assistant State Attorney David Byron told the jury that Michael waited about 24 minutes because “you were waiting for her to die,” and that the intruder story was invented only after it became clear Susan would live.⁸

The Prosecution’s Motive: Money and Divorce

Prosecutors argued the case was about a wealthy man unwilling to lose half his fortune. Byron told jurors, “This is about cold and deadly violence rather than give up half his fortune.”⁵ On the stand, Michael conceded it “didn’t seem fair” for Susan to take half his money.²

The state also introduced Michael’s internet activity from the days before the attack, which included searches for “male friendly post-nuptial agreements” and visits to dating websites. Byron argued that undercut any claim Michael wanted to save the marriage.⁸ Michael owned Ocala Dental Care and Sapphire Dental, LLC, and was described in press accounts as a multimillionaire with homes in Haile Plantation and Ponte Vedra.⁹

What Michael Reuschel Said at Trial

Michael testified over two days and cast himself as the victim. He said Susan was the “primary aggressor,” that she came at him with a knife while intoxicated, and that his wounds came from a struggle over the weapon. He suggested Susan may have cut her own wrist, and he said he lied about the intruder to protect her from arrest, pointing to a prior domestic battery charge against her.⁸

That prior charge came from November 20, 2017, three weeks after Caroline’s wedding. Susan was arrested for domestic battery after Michael said she threw a phone at him and pushed him during an argument about wedding costs. Michael later declined to pursue it and the case was dropped.¹⁰

Defense attorney Ann Finnell told jurors Susan was a heavy drinker who staged the incident and that the injuries happened during a “scuffle over the knife.” She pushed back on the money theory by pointing out, “He was going to buy her a $1.7 million house in Ponte Vedra.”⁵ Investigators concluded most of Michael’s wounds were self-inflicted, and Susan denied being the aggressor. Michael had never reported any prior abuse by her before the night of the stabbing.²

The Verdict and 30-Year Sentence

The trial lasted about nine days at the Alachua County Courthouse before Circuit Judge William Davis. On November 7, 2019, an all-female jury of six deliberated a little over four hours and convicted Michael on all five counts: attempted first-degree murder, false imprisonment, depriving the victim of medical care, tampering with the victim, and tampering with evidence.¹¹

On December 13, 2019, Judge Davis handed down 30 years for attempted first-degree murder, with five-year concurrent sentences on each of the other four counts and restitution to be determined.¹ Michael was 64 at sentencing. Absent successful post-conviction relief, that term would keep him incarcerated into his nineties.

The Appeal

Michael appealed to Florida’s First District Court of Appeal as Case No. 1D20-0122. His appellate lawyers, Philip J. Padovano and Joseph T. Eagleton, filed their initial brief on November 30, 2020, raising three main issues:³

The trial court refused to let the defense review Susan’s mental health records even after acknowledging she had likely waived her psychotherapist-patient privilege by disclosing them in a related civil suit, calling the records “irrelevant.”
The court excluded evidence of Susan’s alleged suicidal ideation, heavy drinking and blackouts, and emotionally abusive statements, along with evidence that Michael had agreed to the divorce.
The trial court dismissed the only male juror on its own, without Michael present and without letting the defense object, producing the all-female panel that convicted him.

A reply brief followed on March 26, 2021.¹² The available record does not include a final ruling from the appellate court.

The Divorce and Civil Side

The divorce proceeded separately while Michael was in prison. In a related 2021 appellate decision, Reuschel v. Reuschel, Case No. 1D20-1039, the First District Court of Appeal addressed Susan’s motion to disqualify a law firm that had been representing both Michael personally and Sapphire Dental, LLC, one of the marital assets. Before the trial court reached the merits, the parties agreed to appoint a custodian to run the business, and the custodian hired separate counsel. A per curiam panel of Judges Lewis, Tanenbaum, and Long affirmed on May 14, 2021, that the disqualification motion was moot.¹³ The final property terms of the divorce are not reflected in the available record.

Why the Case Became Nationally Known

Beyond local coverage in the Gainesville Sun, WUFT, and WCJB, the case reached a national audience through CBS’s “48 Hours,” which aired an episode titled “Reuschel vs. Reuschel” on April 4, 2020 and updated it in February 2021. The episode presented the competing accounts from both sides. Caroline Reuschel told the program, “there’s no way on God’s green earth that my father would stab anyone,” and added, “Never in one million years would I think that my wedding would be the catalyst for all of this.” Byron, reflecting on the outcome after the verdict, called the case a “tragedy” in which wealth had given way to violence.²

1
Gainesville Sun. Gainesville Man Gets 30 Years for Wife’s Attempted Murder
2
CBS News. Mike and Sue Reuschel Attempted Murder Case
3
Florida First District Court of Appeal. Reuschel v. State, Case No. 1D20-0122 – Initial Brief of Appellant
4
WUFT News. Wife of Husband Accused of Trying to Murder Her Testifies in Trial’s Second Day
5
Gainesville Sun. Jury Finds Reuschel Guilty of Trying to Kill Wife
6
CBS News. Mike and Sue Reuschel Attempted Murder Evidence Photos
7
WUFT News. Michael Reuschel Recounts the Night of the Crime
8
Gainesville Sun. Defendant Testifies in Attempted Murder Trial
9
Gainesville Sun. Business Owner Charged in Murder Plot
10
The Ledger. Former Florida Gators Football Player Allegedly Tried to Hire Jail Inmate to Kill Wife
11
WUFT News. Michael Reuschel Found Guilty on All Counts in Wife’s Stabbing
12
Florida First District Court of Appeal. Reuschel v. State, Case No. 1D20-0122 – Appellant’s Reply Brief
13
FindLaw. Reuschel v. Reuschel, No. 1D20-1039