Trial begins for couple accused of child murder, abuse six years after adopted son's death

by Christian Hauser, WKRC

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - The trial for a couple accused of causing the death of one of their children and abusing several others began Friday morning.

Friday was mostly spent on opening statements and the prosecution's first witness.

The prosecution says John and Katherine Snyder are the reason their adopted son died.

Katherine is accused of causing the traumatic head injury which led to the eight-year-old's death. John is accused of failing to feed the child for five weeks between September and October of 2016.

After the child’s death, the couple had been living in Delaware after selling their Springfield Township home in 2017.

They face a total of 26 counts of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault and child endangering.

At the time of their arrest in 2022, when asked about the charges coming six years after the boy's death, a spokeswoman for the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office said the couple's other children provided new details of what allegedly happened to their sibling and themselves in 2016.

The prosecutor's office says all the Snyder’s children showed signs of abuse and had been malnourished.

"Katherine picked [the child] up and slammed him on the ground and caused this subdural hemorrhage to the back of his head. [She] didn't take him back to the hospital like she told the people at [the North College Hill Children's Hospital location] that she would do. Instead, she hurt him. And then, after she hurt him, did she go get him help? No, she did not," Hamilton County Assistant Prosecutor Stacy Lefton said.

Meanwhile, when it was the defense team's turn, attorney Jeremy Evans said their case will focus on the fact that no charges were filed for six years after the child's death. The defense also claims investigators latched onto a theory of child abuse, but that just wasn't the case.

"You will hear that the first conclusion about [the victim's] cause of death was generated before the end of October of 2016 by the chief of the child abuse unit at Cincinnati Children's, the very hospital that sent him home on October 4 and where he passed on October 5," Evans said.

The only witness called was Dr. Mary Staat of Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

The doctor talked about her background and the adoption program she runs in the hospital.

They wrapped up Friday afternoon just as they were getting into the death of the child.

The trial will pick up Monday morning.