READ, Dad. — A judge on Friday rejected a plea deal for a Pennsylvania woman accused of killing her two young children, who were found hanging in the basement of their home nearly four years ago.
Lisa Snyder, 40, tried to plead no contest but mentally ill to two counts of third-degree murder in the deaths of 4-year-old Brinley and 8-year-old Conner in September 2019. The children were taken off life support and died three days after they were found in the home in Albany Township, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia.
Berks County President Judge Theresa Johnson rejected the plea as soon as it was presented to her by a prosecutor and ended the hearing after just a few minutes, shutting down an attorney who tried to intervene.
“I do not accept that plea deal,” Johnson stated, adding, “It does not serve the interests of justice.” She then left the courtroom.
The case now heads to trial, where Snyder is charged with first-degree murder, child endangerment and tampering with evidence.
District Attorney John Adams declined to say why prosecutors had agreed not to let Snyder plead to the reduced charge of third-degree murder, which carries a penalty of 20 to 40 years in prison.
“We do not dispute that she is mentally ill and that she meets the legal threshold for her to be mentally ill,” he said in a telephone interview after the hearing.
Snyder’s attorneys had no comment. Snyder did not respond to the judge’s ruling and ignored a reporter’s questions outside the courtroom.
Snyder, who made the first 911 call, told police that her son was being bullied and had threatened to kill himself. But authorities were immediately suspicious of her claim of suicide, saying they had found no evidence to support it. The boy showed no outward signs of trouble in the school bus surveillance video recorded that day, and an occupational therapist later said he was physically incapable of doing that kind of harm to himself or his little sister.
Police said they found evidence that Snyder went online looking for information about suicide, death by hanging and how to kill someone, and that she also searched for episodes of a documentary crime series called “I Almost Got Away With It.” Snyder also admitted that he went to a store to buy a dog leash the day the children were found hanging from it, authorities said.
A coroner said both children died by hanging and ruled them murders.
“I don’t think I can stand here and no one can explain the horrific loss of the lives of two innocent children. I think it goes without explanation,” Adams, the prosecutor, told reporters when Snyder was charged in December 2019, more than two months after the killings.
The defense had planned an insanity defense, citing a “chronic history of severe mental disorders.” Her attorney has said Snyder had major depression, borderline personality disorder, dissociative disorder and other mental illnesses at the time of the killings.
Prosecutors had indicated they would seek the death penalty.