Widow Sold Valuables of Slain Pornographer for $43,000, Witnesses Say

Less than a month after pornographer Theodore J. Snyder died in a burst of submachine-gun fire, his widow sold her husband’s rare coins and jewelry for $43,000, according to testimony Tuesday at a preliminary hearing for the widow and an alleged hired killer.

The alleged gunman went to a Simi Valley bank shortly after the killing to change a rare $10,000 bill that authorities said belonged to Snyder, the bank’s manager testified.

The hearing was held in San Fernando Municipal Court for Victor Diaz, 47, and Sharon Snyder, 40, of Woodland Hills, who are charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy and a special allegation that they killed for financial gain. If convicted, they could be sentenced to death, prosecutors said.

Authorities said Snyder offered Diaz $20,000 to kill her husband so that she could inherit their property. Her husband was killed on a Northridge street on Aug. 1, 1989.

Michael Clarke, a Richardson, Tex., jewelry broker, testified Tuesday that on Aug. 31, Snyder appeared at his office and sold him her husband’s gold ring, diamond-studded watch and two gold coins.

Mary Rainartsan, manager of the Bank of America branch in Simi Valley, testified that Diaz came to the bank in early August and tried to exchange a $10,000 bill that Los Angeles Police say had been owned by Snyder. Rainartsan said Diaz left with the bill after she told him the bank did not have enough smaller bills on hand.

Police initially speculated that Snyder, a flamboyant producer of sex-oriented videotapes who friends said liked to show off his Rolls-Royce and expensive jewelry, may have been gunned down in an organized-crime “hit.” At the time of his death, Snyder’s Northridge company, VCR Inc., owed $105,000 to a videotape distributor linked by federal investigators to an East Coast crime family.

But police later uncovered evidence they said implicated Sharon Snyder and Diaz, described by authorities as social acquaintances.