The defense began its case on Monday in the trial of a Pennsylvania woman accused of hanging her two children oin the basement of her Pennsylvania home in 2019.
Lawyers for 41-year-old Lisa Snyder are trying to convince a Berks County judge that she was insane the day her children were found dead. They died in the hospital three days later, as CrimeOnline reported.
Snyder called 911 at about 4:30 p.m. on September 23, 2019, and reported that she’d found 8-year-old Connoer and 4-year-old Brinley hanging in the basement of her home. She claimed that Connor had been bullied in school and had threatened suicide in the past, but investigators found no evidence to corroborate the claim.
Defense attorneys are arguing both that Snyder did not kill her children and that she was insane at the time, should the judge rules that she committed the murders, according to the Reading Eagle. Prosecutors rested their case on Friday, A prosecution psychologist, Dr. John O’Brien, testified that he’d found no evidence of a mental break in Snyder on the day the children died.
On Monday, the defense put its own expert on the stand, psychiatrist Dr. Dung Tran, who said that he interviewed Snyder twice in jail and reviewed her records. He testified that Snyder has a long history of mental health issues and attempted suicide when she was 16. He said that she believed her son was bullied and that both children had been sexually abused — despite no evidence of either — and that it pushed her “into a psychotic state.”
Under cross examination, however, he admitted that his assessment about her mental state at the time the children died is “all speculation.”
The trial will continue on Tuesday. Snyder opted for a bench trial, and the judge will determine her guilt or innocence.
