Snider in defense trial stage

Kenzi Snider is currently awaiting her third trial hearing this week in Seoul, South Korea,… Kenzi Snider is currently awaiting her third trial hearing this week in Seoul, South Korea, for allegedly murdering Pitt student Jamie Lynn Penich while the two were studying abroad together in 2001.

Snider is facing homicide charges and a maximum three-year sentence in a South Korean prison if found guilty of trampling Penich in her motel room after the two spent an evening dancing and drinking together in March 2001.

After her U.S. arrest as a murder suspect on Feb. 28, 2002, Snider was held at South Central Regional Jail in Charleston, W.Va.

Based on evidence compiled by FBI investigators and Snider’s written murder confession, she was extradited to South Korea in October 2002 and on Jan. 16, 2003, she was indicted by a South Korean judge on the charge of killing through injury.

Since the indictment, Snider has been held in a South Korean women’s prison while waiting the trial date.

The third trial hearing will allow Snider’s lawyer, Eom Sang-ik, to present his defense. Sang-ik has requested that, in accordance with the South Korean legal system, all written reports compiled by the U.S. investigations be inadmissible in court.

He has instead, requested the two primary FBI investigators to appear and to provide testimony to their findings. If the investigators refuse to testify all evidence found by their investigations against Snider will not be considered in the trial. Instead, only the evidence compiled by the South Korean police investigation will be considered and, according to an e-mail sent by Snider’s mother, Heath Bozonie, the police have found no evidence to support claims against Snider.

“They looked at the evidence and let her go home,” Bozonie explained.

According to Bozonie’s e-mail, she is confident in her daughter’s lawyer and the South Korean legal system, which she feels “is based on what is best for society at large. Therefore, their system can become a cooperative effort to prove innocence.”

This is in contrast to the U.S. legal system, which she feels is “based upon confrontation and competition.”

Snider is adamant concerning her innocence. She believes the U.S. investigation and extradition to South Korea was an effort to protect two American soldiers stationed in Seoul whom she believes murdered Penich.

Snider, however, says she does feel guilt in association with Penich’s death. In an e-mail from her mother sent earlier this year, Bozonie revealed that Snider blames herself for not locking the door to the hotel room after putting a very inebriated Penich to sleep that night, allowing for a murderer to easily enter the room.

Bozonie wrote that she has faith that Snider will be found innocent of all charges. She says that she hopes the two U.S. investigators agree to appear in court because she wants to see Snider’s lawyer in action.

Bozonie wrote that she feels no tension in the courtroom and she wrote, “it feels sympathetic to me.”