An Albany Township woman accused of killing her two children will see her case go to trial after a Berks County judge on Friday rejected a plea deal she had struck with prosecutors.
Lisa Snyder, 40, formerly of the 2400 block of Route 143, is accused of murdering her 8-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. Conner and Brinley were found hanging by a dog lead that was wrapped around a support beam in the basement of their home on Sept. 23, 2019, and both died three days later.
Snyder is facing two counts each of first- and third-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child, and one count of tampering with evidence.
In a courtroom on the seventh floor of the Berks County Courthouse on Friday afternoon, everything seemed in place for Snyder’s case to come to an end.
Prosecutors told President Judge M. Theresa Johnson that a deal had been struck with Snyder and she would plead guilty but mentally ill to the two counts of third-degree murder.
Johnson, speaking tersely, said she would not accept the agreement. She said Pennsylvania law allows a judge to reject a plea deal if it “doesn’t serve the interest of justice,” which is what she is doing.
Johnson said the case will move to trial, then she quickly ended the proceeding and left the courtroom.
Snyder, wearing a yellow sweatshirt with “BCJ” on the back, black sweatpants and shackles on her wrists and ankles, did not have a visible reaction to Johnson’s decision. Snyder was led out of the courtroom shortly after the hearing ended, walking silently and not looking at the crowd in the gallery.
Prosecutors and Snyder’s defense attorneys declined to comment following the hearing.
About three dozen family members and friends of the victims who had gathered inside the courtroom likewise were shocked by the brief proceeding, questioning what had happened and what it meant. They declined to speak to the media.
District Attorney John T. Adams, who was not at the hearing but spoke by phone following it, declined to comment on Johnson’s decision. Instead, he looked toward the future.
“This case is headed for trial, we’ll be prepared for trial,” he said. “We look forward to trying this case in front of a jury. And we’re happy to do so.”
While a recommended sentence was not announced Friday as part of the plea deal, Adams said the deal would have forgone the death penalty and, instead, essentially placed Snyder behind bars for the rest of her life.
“Now that we’re proceeding to trial, we’re again seeking either a life sentence or a sentence of death, which at this point is still on the table,” he said.
Snyder’s trial is set to begin in March.
The case
Snyder was arrested and charged with the murder of her children on Dec. 1, 2019. Her arrest came more than two months after their deaths, which she initially attempted to frame as suicide.
According to court documents:
Snyder called 911 about 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 23, 2019, reporting that she had found Conner and Brinley hanging in the basement of her home.
Emergency responders arrived about 10 minutes later and saw the children hanging about 3 feet apart from each other, a wire cable dog lead with vinyl coating wrapped around each of their necks.
Two wooden, bar-height dining room chairs were below the children, knocked over on their sides.
The children were rushed by ambulance to Lehigh Valley Hospital and both were resuscitated on the way there. They were each put on life support, but died Sept. 26, 2019.
In interviews with police, Snyder said Conner had suffered bullying and had told her multiple times that he wanted to die. She also said Conner had attempted suicide in the past.
Snyder said she believed Conner convinced his little sister to also commit suicide because he was scared to do it alone.
A police investigation quickly discovered that Snyder’s story was a lie.
In speaking with other adults who knew Conner, Snyder’s accounts of him being bullied and depressed appeared to have been fabricated.
A friend of Snyder’s said Snyder was actually the one dealing with mental health issues, saying she had told her about three weeks before the deaths that she was depressed and didn’t care about her kids anymore.
Police also discovered Conner had below average visual motor skills and perceptual vision that would have made it difficult to operate the clasp on the dog lead or to stand on a chair.
As part of the investigation, police confiscated several phones and other electronic devices from Snyder’s home. They also obtained a search warrant for Google and Facebook records associated with Snyder’s email account.
Those records showed that Snyder, in the days before her children’s deaths, had searched for information related to suicide and murder.
That included looking up the phrases “almost got away with it,” “hanging yourself” and “does a hybrid car produce carbon monoxide.”
Investigators also found explicit Facebook messages discussing and sharing photos of Snyder’s dog performing sexual acts on her. Charges involving those allegations are part of a separate case.
In two of the final messages, sent four days before the hangings, she tells the person to whom she had been sending the explicit messages that “You’ll hopefully see Sunday” before lamenting in a second message that she’s having trouble finding a babysitter.
