Defense and prosecution in Adam Snyder trial continue to question coroner’s employee

By Ken Brown

CINCINNATI (WXIX) – Dr. Gretel Stephens, who formerly worked with the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office - and conducted the autopsy on 8-year-old Adam Snyder in 2016 - was the continued focus of questioning during the trial’s seventh day on Monday.

It was Stephens’s second day on the stand in the trial of John and Katherine Snyder, who are accused of killing their 8-year-old son.

Prosecutors worked to rule out other explanations for Adam Snyder’s death, while defense attorneys said other health issues were the cause, such as aspirational pneumonia.

“Based on what you reviewed at this point, do you believe the child was suffering aspirational pneumonia?”

“No,” Stephens said.

The defense questioning left open other possibilities, like an infection.

“With the brain, you found a lot of small hemorrhages, are those associated with infection?” a defense attorney said.

“They can be associated with response to dying, response to previous injury, additional injuries or infection,” Stephens replied.

“So, it’s certainly well within a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the small hemorrhages on Adam’s brain were caused by infection, right?”

“They may have been,” Stephens said.

The trial will have an off day on Tuesday and resume on Wednesday with more testimony.