In 1989, in San Fernando Valley, the bullet riddled body of Teddy Snyder–a pornographer–was found. He was killed outside of his home. A law-enforcement investigator familiar with the case said the killing had the appearance of an organized crime-style hit. Court records show that the Northridge company Snyder founded, Video Cassette Recordings Inc., owed money to a company allegedly controlled by a man linked by federal prosecutors to an East Coast crime family. VCR’s offices were searched as part of the ongoing investigation by a state and local law-enforcement task force probing organized crime links to the porn business.
Police first thought organized crime was involved. They thought pornographers were involved. Those close to Teddy Snyder thought drugs were involved.
Then….
Sharon Snyder, 39, of Woodland Hills, and Victor Diaz, 47, were charged in San Fernando Municipal Court with first-degree murder for allegedly killing Snyder on Aug. 1, 1989. They were also charged with the special allegation that they killed for financial gain, which means prosecutors may seek the death penalty.
According to the district attorney’s complaint against them, Sharon Snyder offered Diaz $20,000 to kill her husband so that she could inherit their property.
Snyder, 47, was shot four times from the front and five times in the back with a .380-caliber Mac II submachine gun near his parked car in Northridge. Apparently Sharon was pretty intent on inheriting money from her bankrupt husband. At least according to authorities.
The investigation turned toward the wife after Ventura County law enforcement officials arrested William Fisher in an unrelated investigation. Port Hueneme police were investigating drug sales in their city and followed a suspect, not Fisher, to a Simi Valley residence where Fisher, 35, lived, said Sgt. Dennis Fitzgerald.
Authorities raided the property and arrested Fisher on misdemeanor drug charges. He was later arrested again for violating the conditions of a federal parole by associating with a convicted felon, and was then currently in federal custody in Los Angeles, authorities said.
Police found undisclosed evidence linking Fisher to the Snyder killing during the raid and contacted Los Angeles detectives. Fisher then gave investigators information about the killing, authorities said.
According to the San Fernando court complaint, after Sharon Snyder offered Diaz $20,000 to kill her husband, Diaz offered Fisher $20,000 to commit an unspecified murder. Fisher later helped Diaz obtain the submachine gun which authorities believe Diaz used to shoot Teddy Snyder, the complaint stated.
According to police Sharon Snyder gave Diaz a $10,000 bill, the complaint said. The rare bill came from Teddy Snyder’s money collection, Mellecker said. Seriously. Would she do that? I don’t know.
In her testimony, Sharon Snyder said that shortly before the slaying, a New York man she said was a “lieutenant in the Lucchese crime family” had stepped up pressure to collect a debt of more than $100,000 that her husband owed the family.
The man said her husband “had a week, and if he didn’t pay the money, Teddy would be dead,” Snyder said. Snyder testified that she and her husband were broke and barely able to support their cocaine habits.
In the trial a handwriting expert testified that Sharon Snyder did not write a letter in which she purportedly admitted her role in the machine-gun slaying of her pornographer husband. Nor was the letter written by Victor Diaz, the confessed triggerman who brought the letter forward in the San Fernando Superior Court trial of Sharon Snyder, the expert said.
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Diaz, the prosecution’s chief witness, surprised the court when he testified that the defendant had sent him a letter implicating herself in the slaying of her husband, Theodore Snyder.
So can you guess the outcome of this trial.
Here it is.
Jury Acquits Wife in 1989 Slaying of Sex-Video Maker. San Fernando Superior Court jurors, who deliberated five days before reaching a verdict, said they did not believe the testimony of the prosecution’s chief witness against Sharon Snyder, 41.
The witness, Victor Diaz, 47, who admitted killing flamboyant sex-video producer Theodore J. Snyder, testified that he did it at Sharon Snyder’s behest because he was in love with her and she had promised to share her inheritance with him. The jury did not trust his story. In return for his testimony, Diaz, an admitted cocaine dealer, was allowed to plead no contest to second-degree murder and was promised a maximum sentence of 17 years to life. Had she been convicted, Snyder could have been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Teddy Snyder’s Credits
Raven (Video) (executive producer)
1984 Tracie Lords (Video) (executive producer)
1983 Blue Confessions (Video) (executive producer) / (producer)
1981 Seka’s Fantasies (Video) (executive producer)
1973 Tell the Doc (Short) (producer)
1971 Sex for Sale (Short) (producer)
Hide HideDirector (3 credits)
1984 The Erotic World of Candy Shields (Video)
1973 Tell the Doc (Short)
1971 Sex for Sale (Short)
Hide HideCinematographer (3 credits)
1983 Blue Confessions (Video)
1973 Tell the Doc (Short)
1971 Sex for Sale (Short)
