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Retired NM deputy looks to change law helping killers

Proposal would eliminate New Mexico’s statute of limitations for second-degree murder

By Milan Simonich
Alamogordo Daily News

SANTA FE — State Rep. Bill Rehm says New Mexico law can help cold killers get away with murder.

A retired sheriff’s deputy, Rehm has filed a bill that he says would close legal loopholes and make the justice system fairer.

His proposal would eliminate New Mexico’s statute of limitations for second-degree murder, now set at six years. Rehm’s bill also would extend time limits for prosecuting certain other felonies.

The case of Ellen Snyder of Albuquerque was his primary motivation.

Snyder shot and killed her husband, Mike, as they argued at home one day in 2002. She fired eight bullets to fell a man disabled by multiple sclerosis.

Then Snyder buried his body in their backyard, enlisting the help of her teenage son and unknowing heavy equipment operators who dug what became Mike Snyder’s grave.

Eight years passed before police uncovered her crime. By then, the statute of limitations for second-degree murder and manslaughter had lapsed, making the government’s job of prosecuting Ellen Snyder much harder.

Prosecutors had a dilemma, and Rehm said Snyder had bargaining power.

The state was free to try Snyder for first-degree murder, a crime of premeditation for which there is no time limit to prosecute. But proving that charge to a jury would be difficult, perhaps impossible.

Had Snyder planned to kill her husband, or did she shoot him during a fast-developing confrontation? Prosecutors thought the evidence showed intent to kill, but not necessarily any planning.

In addition, a psychologist employed by the defense said Snyder was a battered woman. Coworkers told of her arguing with her husband and how they once saw her with a black eye.

If prosecutors failed to prove a first-degree murder charge, Snyder could walk free on her husband’s killing.

The state’s option aside from a first-degree murder prosecution was to negotiate a deal. It did just that.

Snyder pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter after she waived the statute of limitations on that crime. The state also convicted her of a related firearms crime, tampering with evidence and tax fraud for deceptions about her husband being alive.

District Judge Kenneth Martinez gave her the maximum sentence under the plea agreement 11 years in prison. Snyder, 52, could have received a life sentence had the state obtained a murder conviction against her.

Rehm, R-Albuquerque, said his solution is simply to eliminate the time limit for prosecuting second-degree murder.

“Some states don’t have any statute of limitations for homicides,” Rehm said.

His proposal, which will be introduced in the legislative session starting this month, would not go that far. For instance, it would not reduce time limits for prosecuting third-degree murder or manslaughter cases.

But Rehm’s bill would lengthen the time in which underlying charges of conspiracy and tampering with evidence could be prosecuted. Those crimes would have the same deadline as the primary charge. So if a defendant faced charges of second-degree murder and conspiracy, Rehm’s bill would end the statute of limitations on both.

Aside from murder and certain sex crimes, first-degree felonies would have a 10-year statute of limitation under his legislation.

Rehm’s measure is House Bill 31.

Copyright 2012 Alamogordo Daily News

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