Wife, Accomplice Killed Film Producer, D.A. Says

A Woodland Hills woman and an alleged accomplice were charged Monday with murdering the woman’s husband, an X-rated film producer shot to death on a Northridge street last August.

Sharon Snyder, 39, and Victor Diaz, whose address was not immediately available, were charged with murder and conspiracy to murder Theodore J. Snyder, 47, of Woodland Hills, part owner of Video Cassette Recordings and Mark V International adult video companies.

Snyder was shot Aug. 1 at Blackhawk Street and Wilbur Avenue in Northridge. Sharon Snyder and Diaz were arrested Friday by Los Angeles police detectives and are being held without bail in city jails pending arraignment today in San Fernando Municipal Court, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

The murder charge carries a special circumstance allegation of murder for financial gain, which makes it possible for prosecutors to seek the death penalty or life in prison without possibility of parole.

Further details were not available because law enforcement officials could not be reached for comment Monday evening.

At least one law enforcement source said after the shooting that Snyder’s ties to organized crime might have led to his death, but police publicly said no clear motive had emerged in their investigation.

Diaz, whose occupation was not immediately known, also is charged with one count of possession of a machine gun, Gibbons said.

Court affidavits showed that Snyder’s company did business with and owed money to a firm allegedly controlled by Martin Taccetta, a man linked by federal prosecutors to the Lucchese crime family.

Times staff writer Philipp Gollner contributed to this story.