Man Jailed for Racist Messages Receives Reduction in Sentence

A Van Nuys man serving a year in prison for mailing racist messages to two administrators and a student at Grant High School won a brief reduction in his sentence Monday.

Robert (Bobby) Snyder, 20, will be released from federal custody in early August, rather than late September.

The earlier release will get him out of jail in time to register for fall semester classes at Valley College, said Snyder’s attorney, Donald Calabria.

U. S. District Court Judge Mariana Pfaelzer sentenced Snyder in July to a year in prison on his guilty plea to three counts of mailing threatening communications to Gerald Redmond, a classmate at Grant High School; Assistant Principal Joseph Walker and Principal Robert Collins.

Redmond and Walker are black and Collins, who is white, is married to a black woman. Snyder is white.

Pfaelzer agreed to the reduction under a federal rule that allows a defendant sentenced to a year and a day to receive credit for time served before sentencing.

Snyder thus receives credit for 54 days served before he pleaded guilty.

Assistant U. S. Atty. Lee Michaelson did not oppose the sentencing change.

Snyder, who has been serving his sentence at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, gave a thumbs-up sign to his mother after the ruling by the judge.

Under a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Snyder wrote letters of apology to Redmond, Walker and Collins and an open letter to the high school.