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CHRIS TISCHIowa officials and Roy D. Snyder's family knew he was wanted, but he easily avoided capital sexual battery charges.
LARGO - If anyone was looking for Roy D. Snyder all these years, he wasn't that hard to find, his family members say.
Since 1995, Snyder has lived in his home state of Iowa. He has bought a house, fixed it up and handed it over to his son. He has worked construction jobs and lived with a couple of girlfriends. He certainly didn't appear to be on the run from anyone.
"He was not hiding," said Snyder's father, who lives in Iowa and also is named Roy. "He was running around buying materials and stuff (for his house) whenever he had a little bit of money."
Snyder's family knew he was a wanted man in Florida since the mid 1990s, but they weren't exactly sure what it was all about. They figured if it were that serious, the law would come and get him.
But no one ever did. And the years went by.
Then last year, a police narcotics team began watching Snyder's home in Des Moines. They suspected drug activity was going on there. After some time, they had enough evidence to get a search warrant for the home.
Inside, police found a cache of marijuana and prescription drugs that would earn Snyder a 10-year prison sentence. But the Iowa police found something else.
Snyder was wanted in Pinellas County on a charge of capital sexual battery. A father of five children, Snyder had been accused of raping a 7-year-old girl in 1994 in Pinellas County. The girl was a playmate of his then-girlfriend's child.
A warrant had been issued for his arrest in August 1995, but detectives believe Snyder left Florida about that time to avoid arrest.
Snyder moved back to Iowa, where a few lucky breaks allowed him to continue living as a free man for about nine years. As far as his parents know, he told no one details of the accusations in Pinellas.
In fact, they didn't know what charges their son faced until a St. Petersburg Times reporter called them last week.
"The boy never did tell us what was going on and what he was wanted for," said his mother, Henrietta. "Oh my."
Snyder hadn't served even a year of his Iowa drug sentence before officials there paroled him and he was shipped to Florida. He arrived at the Pinellas County Jail Sunday, where he is being held without bail.
But after almost 10 years, defense attorneys say prosecutors will find challenges in trying Snyder, 39.
"The case is almost 10 years old and there does not appear to be any physical evidence that links Mr. Snyder to the crime," said Greg Williams, Snyder's public defender. "And he has maintained his innocence in all contacts with me."
Snyder's father, who served as a business agent for a construction union for 22 years, said Snyder grew up with some troubles and dropped out of high school in his senior year. His mother thinks he smoked marijuana.
He had his first child around the age of 18. His five children would be borne by three different women, his father said.
"He's a good guy, but he's had trouble," his father said. "Nothing to that magnitude, of course. He's well-liked, and he treated people pretty decent."
Snyder worked construction jobs in the area before moving south to take a job selling meat door-to-door, his father said. He settled in Pinellas.
Snyder's father said no one ever complained about his son acting inappropriately around children.
But in March 1995, Pinellas sheriff's detectives received a call from a woman whose 7-year-old daughter had started acting strangely. The woman came to suspect the youngster had been abused.
The woman said she suspected the live-in boyfriend of a former babysitter, but that investigation stalled when the man moved to California. He was never charged, and there are no active warrants for his arrest in Pinellas County.
An examination of the girl found evidence the child had been sexually violated. When a detective asked the girl during an interview if anyone had ever touched her, she replied, "Yes, two men."
The girl told a detective that she had been abused by the live-in boyfriend of a playmate's mother. When she would go to the playmate's home, she said, the boyfriend would lock her in his bedroom and sexually abuse her. She said "it happened a lot of times," court records state.
The detective learned the boyfriend was Roy D. Snyder. The detective placed Snyder's photo in a lineup of photographs of other men. The girl picked him out as her abuser.
Five months later, after a review by the State Attorney's Office, a warrant was issued for Snyder's arrest. Snyder's last known address in Pinellas County was listed in the warrant, but by then he was gone.
Snyder came back to Iowa, saying he was tired of selling meat. He got into some trouble with the law in his home state and was sentenced to work release. In late 1995, police arrested him on charges that he had fled from his work release post.
When Snyder's name was run through computers, the Pinellas County warrant popped up. The suggested bail amount for the charge was high, but that was about to change.
According to Bill Thomas, an Iowa attorney who would later represent Snyder, a judge lowered the amount so that Snyder could bail out.
Said Thomas, "He reduced it and Snyder got out and dropped off the radar screen. Nobody heard from him for five or six years."
Snyder's parents said their son moved around a lot but didn't appear to be dodging the law. In fact, Snyder's father said he thinks his son was in jail a few times after that, though there are no records in Iowa or Pinellas County to substantiate that.
Williams, Snyder's Pinellas public defender, said he also has learned Snyder may have been in an Iowa jail sometime between 1995 and 2003. "It's still an issue we're investigating," he said.
And there may be good reason to investigate. Prosecutors could run into problems regarding Snyder's constitutional right to a speedy trial.
"The state may have a problem about withstanding a motion to dismiss it because they didn't timely prosecute him," said Mark Lipinski, a Bradenton attorney who is not connected to the Snyder case.
Pinellas prosecutors could not comment on the case last week, partly because the case is so old that no one was that familiar with it.
Prosecutors also could have other problems trying Snyder.
For one, the girl is now in her teens and, if her memory is fuzzy, the case grows weaker. That a second man may have abused her also may be problematic.
"Then you have contamination," Lipinski said. "How much she remembers could be a challenging issue."
Williams said he wasn't sure that prosecutors have been able to reach the girl, whom he believes now lives outside the state.
One thing prosecutors may have to strengthen their case: The interview with the girl was videotaped, which could be powerful evidence.
While Williams agreed that the time gap could make Snyder more difficult to prosecute, he says there is a flip side as well.
"It makes it even more challenging to defend," he said. "Witnesses who may prove an alibi are now long since gone."
No one knows how long Roy Snyder could have avoided his Florida charge if he hadn't gotten involved in drugs.
When the police got a search warrant for his home last year, they found about three pounds of marijuana and more than 140 prescription pills, including hydrocodone and diazepam. He pleaded guilty to several drug charges and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but the state of Florida was allowed to retrieve him months later.
Thomas, Snyder's Iowa attorney, said his client admitted to the drug charges but adamantly denied the sexual abuse charge.
"He maintains he didn't do anything. He was shocked that so many years later they were pulling him back," Thomas said. "He said, "Oh man, how can they take me back on something this flimsy?' "
Here in Pinellas, Williams has entered a not guilty plea on Snyder's behalf. His arraignment is set for April 12.
Snyder's father said he thinks the charges are false, though he also wonders how his son went so many years without getting caught.
"A guy looking over his shoulder can only look so long," he said. "It's bound to get to you soon enough."
- Chris Tisch can be reached at 445-4156 or tisch@sptimes.com