The mental health of Lisa Snyder took center stage Monday during the sixth day of the Albany Township woman’s double murder trial in the deaths of two of her children.
Experts for the defense and prosecution took turns trying to convince Berks County President Judge M. Theresa Johnson, who is hearing the bench trial, whether or not Snyder was legally sane on Sept. 23, 2019, the day her young son and daughter were found hanging in the basement of her home. The children died in Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest near Allentown three days later.
Snyder’s defense attorneys have said they are pursuing an insanity defense as part of their strategy.
In his opening remarks last Monday, defense attorney Dennis Charles said the prosecution must first prove that Snyder murdered 8-year-old Connor and 4-year-old Brinley, which Snyder has maintained she did not do. She has repeatedly said that Connor was responsible for the deaths.
If the 41-year-old Snyder is proved to have committed the crime, Charles said, the defense hopes to show she was legally insane when it happened, suffering a psychotic break and unable to know her actions were wrong.
The defense furthered that part of the strategy Monday by calling physician and psychiatrist Dr. Dung Tran to the stand as an expert witness.
Tran testified that he interviewed Snyder in jail on Dec. 6, 2022 and again a week later. He reviewed some of Snyder’s medical records, particularly those related to a 2014 incident when she reported having homicidal thoughts about her children.
That led to her children being removed from her care by Berks County Children and Youth for six months and a voluntary stay in an inpatient mental health treatment facility for Snyder.
Tran said Snyder has a long history of mental health issues, which he attributed to her claim that she was sexually abused as a child. Snyder attempted suicide when she was 16, he said, and has throughout her life exhibited chaotic and wild behavior.
Tran said Snyder suffers from bipolar disorder with psychotic features, borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Tran said he believes Snyder never got the help she needed, getting treated only for depression and anxiety. That was only part of her issue, he said.
Tran said he believes Snyder’s problems were triggered leading up to the deaths of her children. The belief that Connor was being bullied and was suicidal, along with a belief that both Connor and Brinley had been sexually abused — an allegation that has not been proved to be true — pushed her over the edge, he said.
“She went into a psychotic state,” he testified.
Tran said he believes Snyder had defective reasoning at the time her children were killed and did not understand that she was doing something wrong.
Under cross-examination, Tran admitted his opinion was based on Snyder’s overall mental health history, not on her particular action on Sept. 23, 2019. He went as far as to say that what her mental state was at the time is “all speculation.”
The prosecution rebutted Tran’s testimony with their own expert, psychologist and forensic psychologist Dr. John O’Brien.
O’Brien interviewed Snyder in prison on March 28, 2023. He reviewed a host of her records, ranging from hospital and pharmacy records to reports from Berks County Children and Youth Services and state police to autopsy reports and records from Berks County Prison.
In all, O’Brien said, he reviewed three file boxes full of documents.
In his opinion, O’Brien said, Snyder has long suffered from anxiety and depression but not bipolar disorder, post-traumatic tress disorder or borderline personality disorder. There is simply not enough evidence — either in her history or found through interviews with Snyder — to support those diagnoses, he said.
O’Brien said there is no evidence Snyder had a psychotic break at the time her children were hanged. Instead, he said, Snyder time and time again has provided a very detailed accounting of what happened that afternoon.
O’Brien also said that during his interviews with Snyder she never spoke about being sexually abused as a child or her claim that her children had been sexually abused. And he said a personality test completed by Snyder showed that she is prone to exaggerate.
Snyder’s defense team tried to discredit O’Brien based on his long history of serving as an expert witness. Charles, Snyder’s lead defense attorney, asked O’Brien how many times he had found a defendant to be legally insane. O’Brien said he could only remember doing so once.
Charles questioned if O’Brien even believes a defense of legal insanity should be allowed, repeatedly saying that the witness had only found someone to be insane once over the last 40 years.
The trial will continue Tuesday.
