The Pennsylvania mother convicted of hanging her two young children of the basement of their home five years ago was sentenced Thursday to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
Lisa Snyder, 41, was also sentenced to 8 to 17 years in prison, to be served after the life sentences, for her convictions on charges of endangering the welfare of children and tampering with evidence, WPVI reported.
Snyder faced a bench trial last month and was found guilty on all counts by President Judge M. Theresa Johnson, who rejected the defense efforts to have her found guilty by reason of insanity, as CrimeOnline reported.
Snyder had called 911 claiming that she found Conner Snyder, 8, and Brinley Snyder, 4, hanging from a wired cable and said at the time that her son was bullied and suicidal. But Snyder’s older son and other witnesses said they never heard of Connor being bullied or suicidal. Snyder was ultimately arrested after investigators found internet searches on her phone relating to suicide and murder.
Prosecutors argued Snyder had planned to kill Conner for some time and in fact, had her children temporarily taken from her in 2014 because of her thoughts to kill the boy. On the day in 2019, prosecutors said, she put a plan into place, but had not intended to kill the little girl, whom she adored. But Brinley unexpectedly came into the room while she was hanging Conner, and Snyder made the decision to kill the little girl because she was a witness, procecutors said.
Brinley watched from a corner, urinating on herself, while her mother set up another chair and the dog lead she’d purchased just to kill Conner to also kill her daughter, prosecutors said.
