SUNBURY - Attempted murder suspect Robert A. Snyder Jr. was still in handcuffs and an orange prison smock when a friend handed him a one dollar bill Thursday inside a Northumberland County courtroom.
Snyder used it to leave jail hours later after Judge Charles H. Saylor awarded his release on $1 nominal bail under the state's speedy trial rule. He's restricted from traveling beyond a six-county area, must be placed on house arrest with GPS monitoring, and must not contact his wife or her family, including their daughter.
Bail had been $300,000 on charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, reckless endangerment and simple assault.
Snyder was held in custody for more than 180 days since his arrest Feb. 5, a violation of Rule 600. The District Attorney's Office sought to keep him behind bars on the premise that Snyder is a dangerous threat to his wife of nearly 20 years.
'I'm not safe'
State police say Snyder pointed a Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum revolver inches from the face of his wife, Kimberley, and threatened to shoot her dead before turning the gun on himself inside their Packer Island home Feb. 4. Kimberley Snyder took the stand Thursday and told the court neither supervised bail nor a Protection From Abuse order would make her feel safe if her husband was released.
"Ultimately, it's a piece of paper and it won't do anything," she said. "If he's out, I'm not safe."
The defense countered that Snyder had only one target when he held the handgun, and it was Snyder himself. He intended to commit suicide when his wife rushed him and wrestled for control of the gun. A single bullet was fired, and Snyder says it was his wife who pulled the trigger during the struggle.
"Isn't it true that you pointed the gun at her and said 'I'm going to kill you and kill myself?' That's what happened," Michael Toomey, assistant district attorney, said during a period of intense back-and-forth with Snyder.
"That's an absolute lie. I had the gun to my head and she ran at me," Snyder answered, later denying allegations that he struck his wife in the face.
"I absolutely told the police she pulled the trigger because she pulled the trigger," Snyder also said during testimony. "Did I try to kill my wife? Absolutely not."
'She's ... dead'
Toomey played a videotape from the night of Snyder's arrest to prove the defendant remained a threat. The suspect was alone inside an interview room at the state police Stonington station. Snyder put on a bizarre showing reminiscent of a chanting scene from Martin Scorcese's "Wolf of Wall Street" - humming, tapping and chanting rhythmically before repeatedly making threats against his wife's life.
"I'm going to kill that @#$%ing @#$%@," he repeated more than once. At one point he laughed, saying "She's @#$%ing dead," and "I don't think I ever had a reason to kill before but I do now."
He began to chew on a manila envelope and later ripped and chewed on pieces of a PFA, which Toomey said was a clear indicator of Snyder's disregard for any parameters a judge could set to keep the accuser safe. Jail is the only guaranteed protection, Toomey said.
Michael Rudinski, Snyder's defense attorney, challenged the assertion that the threats were legitimate. The prosecution presented the comments without context, he argued, adding that he would seek to suppress the video at trial. He said the comments were born out of frustration after Snyder was held in custody for more than two hours despite requesting an attorney up to 30 times and denying a police interview. He had already been told he was facing attempted murder charges and was served the PFA that barred him from his home and from speaking with his daughter. It pushed him over the edge, Rudinski said.
"These comments were clearly after that," Rudinski said to Trooper Ronald Zanella during questioning Thursday.
"Some of it, yes," Zanella said.
"That's when he got frustrated, after he was told he would be charged with attempted murder and he didn't pull the trigger," Rudinski said.
Zanella told the court that Snyder appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and that his behavior was "uncharacteristic for anyone." However, he also said he believed Snyder was coherent, saying the man spoke of his business ventures and having attended school to study how to become a district judge.
Snyuder owns popular Sunbury lunch counter, the Squeeze-In, and once owned the former Peppermint Lounge. He previously served on Sunbury City Council and unsuccessfully ran for magisterial district judge in Sunbury.
Northumberland County District Attorney Ann Targonski said her office twice tried to take the case to trial. It will again be scheduled for October, she said.
While she disagreed with Saylor's ruling, saying Snyder should remain locked up pending trial, she said the ruling has no bearing on the criminal case.
"I do not believe it's an indication of the case's strength. It's a technical issue, it has nothing to do with the issues of the case," Targonski said.
Rudinski said Thursday the case had been stalled because the District Attorney's Office has failed to turn over requested discovery evidence.