Plea Bargain : Man Gets 6 Years in Killing of Male Lover

A former Lake View Terrace nursing home aide, who pleaded guilty last month to voluntary manslaughter for killing his homosexual lover and dumping the dismembered body in Mexico, was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison.

An attorney for the defendant, Bobby Lynn Snyder, 33, said after the sentencing that his client, who originally was charged with murder, had been tortured into making a confession to Mexican police after his arrest in July, 1983.

The lawyer, Garrett Zelen, said Snyder accepted the plea bargain because he wanted to end the case after spending 2 1/2 years in jail awaiting trial.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Myron Jenkins said he offered the plea bargain to Snyder because he was “left with little or no evidence” when he discovered that several of the prosecution’s Mexican witnesses could not be located to testify.

Alleged Confession

Snyder allegedly confessed to Mexican police and later to San Diego police that he shot his live-in lover, Elburn D. Shroll, during an argument by the Big Tujunga Wash in Sylmar on July 15, 1983. According to a probation report, Snyder then asked two friends to help him drive the body to Mexico, where he cut off the head, hands and feet.

The report said Snyder showed Mexican police where he dumped the torso in brush along a remote road between Rosarito Beach and Ensenada in Baja California. The rest of the body was found buried in a cattle pasture three miles north.

Snyder was arrested during a routine traffic stop in Tijuana the day after the murder. According to the probation report, Mexican officers discovered bloody clothing and sheets during a search of his car.

Zelen said Snyder confessed to killing Shroll only after Mexican officers hung him upside down, taped his eyes and mouth shut and poured carbonated water into his nose.

“My client did not make that confession voluntarily,” said Zelen, who had been seeking to have the confession thrown out of court. But the plea came before a ruling was made.

If the confession had been ruled inadmissible, Zelen and Jenkins said, none of the evidence gathered as a result of it could be used against Snyder.

“We might have lost much of the physical evidence,” Jenkins said. “In essence, we were left with little or no evidence, and that is why the manslaughter plea was offered.”

Counting the time Snyder already has served in County Jail, he will be eligible for parole in about 15 months, Zelen said.