Snyder Seeks Sentence Reduction

William "B J" Snyder
William “B J” Snyder

LOCK HAVEN – Counsel for confessed murderer William “B.J.” Snyder has wasted no time seeking a reduced sentence for his client.

Attorney David Lindsay has filed a motion for reconsideration in Clinton County Court, claiming Judge Michael Salisbury abused his discretion earlier this month when he imposed the maximum sentence allowed by law, 20 to 52 years, against Snyder, the Renovo man who had confessed to murder in the April 2015 strangulation death of his wife Kelley Jo Snyder. The court had imposed the sentence based on plea bargain confessions to third degree murder and abuse of a corpse, followed by a pre-sentence investigation.

Judge Salisbury today scheduled a hearing for Oct. 31 on the defense request.
Lindsay’s court petition claims Salisbury improperly ignored his client’s “extreme remorse,” his acceptance of responsibility and his understanding of how his mental health altered his judgment. He contends the court put too much emphasis on punishment and not enough emphasis on Snyder’s time in the military which included being wounded in Iraq, post-traumatic stress disorder and no previous criminal record.

Lindsay also claims Salisbury’s extended sentence failed to consider its impact on Snyder’s children.
A spokesman for the state attorney general’s office said the state agency opposes the defense request.
Snyder, now 36, had entered a guilty plea in December of 2015 to the reduced charges.

Snyder was the husband of the previously missing Renovo woman whose body had been found in Halls Run a week after she disappeared on Easter weekend of last year. The police affidavit of probable cause containing the first degree murder charge was filed in May of 2015 as part of an ongoing state police investigation; it alleged she had been strangled by her husband.

Snyder had been arrested April 10, 2015 and charged with abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. Armed with the results of the autopsy on Snyder’s wife, police then in May of that year filed first and third degree murder charges and false reports, in addition to earlier charges of abuse of corpse and tampering with evidence.

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