Snelson found guilty again
Kamloops jury takes one day to find Neil Snelson guilty of 1993 murder in Kelowna
Two juries agree Neil Snelson killed Jennifer Cusworth 22 years ago, but how much prison time he’ll serve, if any, remains unanswered for now.
The Kelowna man was tried for manslaughter in Kamloops this month after the BC Court of Appeal overturned the first conviction in Kelowna two years ago. The sevenwoman, five-man jury convicted him Tuesday after a day of deliberations.
They found Snelson, 49, strangled the 19-year-old college student and clubbed her head repeatedly after a house party in October 1993. He dumped her body in a ditch by Swamp Road and carried on his life for 16 years before police arrested him.
“If I’d have been a little weaker I’d have fallen over,” said Terry Cusworth, Jennifer’s father, after the verdict was announced.
His wife Jean, who has sat by him through numerous court proceedings, was unable to be with him Tuesday due to a medical condition. He called her right after the verdict. “We got it,” he told her. Cusworth said he’s not hoping for a specific sentence for Snelson.
“What Mr. Snelson gets, I believe in spiritual justice,” he said. “I think he’ll get his spiritual justice later.”
Crown counsel Iain Currie presented evidence that showed Snelson’s DNA matched semen found in Cusworth’s body. Snelson told jurors at the first trial that he had consensual sex with her in his truck at the party and never saw her again.
Despite that claim, he told police he didn’t recognize her photo. He only hinted he may have known her when two Mounties asked him in 2009 how he could explain his DNA being on her body. By then he’d married, fathered four children and joined a church.
Jennifer Montguire, a friend of Cusworth’s who attended the first trial, said Snelson is selfish and shows no remorse for his crime.
“You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge. And he’s not acknowledging this. Does that mean he’ll re-offend? He’s got obvious sexual patterns that the RCMP saw.”
Montguire, a counsellor in Vernon, is pleased by the verdict, but worries Snelson will move back to Lake Country, where he has lived while on bail for the last year.
“I’m more concerned about the sentencing than him being found guilty,” she said. “He had 16 years of walking free because he hid … This person will be walking around in our midst too soon. No matter how many years he gets, it’ll be too soon.”
Justice Alison Beames, the first judge, sentenced Snelson to 15 years at the first trial, ranking his manslaughter conviction more serious than most because he sexually assaulted Cusworth. She gave him four years of credit for pre-trial custody.
If Justice Dev Dley agrees to the same prison term, he must decide whether to give Snelson extra credit for the three years he spent as an inmate before he got bail. Montguire is afraid he’ll get parole because he’ll have served the equivalent of one third of an 11-year sentence.
“Will he be walking away?” she said.
Snelson successfully appealed the first guilty verdict when B.C.’s highest court found the Crown could not enter a question from police about whether he was ready to plead guilty or innocent.
In the first trial, the Crown said an innocent man would not have had pause to consider that question.
Lawyers plan to set a date for a sentencing hearing on Monday.
I’m more concerned about the sentencing than him being found guilty.
Jennifer Montguire