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Circuit Court of Baltimore County

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF MARYLAND No. 139 September Term, 1998

WILLIAM L. SNYDER, SR.

v.

STATE OF MARYLAND

Bell, C.J. Eldridge *Rodowsky * *Chasanow Raker Wilner, Cathell J.J.

Opinion by Bell, C.J. Cathell, J., concurs in result only. Filed:
*Rodowsky, J., now retired, participated in the hearing and conference of this case while an active member of this Court; after being recalled pursuant to the Constitution, Article IV, Section 3A, he also participated in the decision and adoption of this opinion. **Chasanow, J., now retired, participated in the hearing and conference of this case while an active member of this Court, but did not participate in the decision and adoption of this opinion.

The petitioner, William L. Snyder, was tried and convicted of the first degree premeditated murder of his wife and sentenced to life imprisonment. He appealed his conviction and sentence to the Court of Special Appeals, which reversed. See Snyder v. State, 104 Md. App. 533, 657 A.2d 342 (1995).1 Following a second trial, the petitioner was again convicted of first degree murder and again sentenced to life imprisonment. In an unreported opinion, the Court of Special Appeals affirmed the judgment. On certiorari to this Court, the petitioner raises two issues: first, whether the trial court erred when it held that facts establishing that the petitioner did not inquire about the progress of the police investigation into his wife's murder were admissible as evidence of his consciousness of guilt and, second, whether the trial court erred by permitting the State to introduce testimony, that seven months prior to the murder, the petitioner and the victim had a physical dispute, and that, at some unspecified date during the marriage, the petitioner hit the victim. Answering the first question in the affirmative and the second question in the negative, we shall reverse. I. Mrs. Kay Snyder, the wife of the petitioner, was murdered and, on February 14, 1986, her body was found lying on the side of the road across the street from their home. Seven years later, the petitioner was charged with, and tried for, her murder. At the petitioner's first trial in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, the State maintained that the petitioner killed his wife because their marriage was breaking apart and the petitioner wished to retain full ownership of their house and collect as the beneficiary on his wife's life insurance policy. Without forensic evidence or eyewitness testimony linking the petitioner to the murder, the State based its case solely on

1

The issues in that appeal were unrelated to the issues in the case sub judice.

circumstantial evidence. During both opening and closing statements, the State stressed this circumstantial evidence, contending that it established that the petitioner was the killer. That evidence included the petitioner's behavior the day of the killing, evidence that the killer took pains to delay discovery of the crime, evidence that the murder did not occur during a robbery or sexual assault, evidence of the petitioner's "stormy" relationship with his wife leading up to the murder, evidence that the petitioner and his wife had a "big fight" the evening before the murder, as well as evidence establishing that the petitioner had a financial motive for the murder. The petitioner denied the charges. He argued instead that he was married to the victim for almost 25 years, that his relationship with his wife was "great and getting better," and that "everything ha[d] been great for [the] last three or four months" before the murder. A jury found the petitioner guilty of first degree murder and the court sentenced him to life imprisonment. On appeal, the Court of Special Appeals reversed the conviction and remanded for a new trial, having concluded that the trial court erred by admitting an investigating officer's unfairly prejudicial and speculative statements. Snyder, supra, 104 Md. App. at 553-54, 657 A.2d at 352-53. The petitioner was retried. Similar to the first trial, and over the petitioner's objection, the State presented testimony regarding the petitioner's and the victim's relationship leading up to the murder. A friend of the victim testified that she had a telephone conversation with the victim the night before the murder and that the victim stated in that conversation that she "just had a fight" with the petitioner, during which the petitioner "told her that she was a dead woman." The friend also stated that, at the time of this conversation, the victim "was crying and real excited." "She was upset." "She was scared." The State elicited additional testimony, also over the petitioner's objection, from the daughters of the petitioner
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regarding a physical dispute between the victim and the petitioner that occurred on July 30, 1985. The trial court stated its reasons for admitting the evidence of the July 30, 1985 dispute: "I think this is a circumstantial case, and the latest analogy used to always say the links of a chain. Now, the writer is saying strands in a cable makes it even thinner than links of a chain. I think he is entitled to show a continuing atmosphere as being the motive. I agree he has to start somewhere. "So your objection is noted for the record. I'm going to overrule it and allow it. I think it is circumstantial part of motive." Once again, over the petitioner's objection, the State was permitted to offer testimony from the investigating authorities regarding the petitioner's conduct during the months and years following the murder. An investigating officer for the State testified that, since February 20, 1986, the day the petitioner voluntarily went to the police station to give "elimination prints,"2 the petitioner made no inquiry regarding the status of the police investigation. In closing argument, the prosecutor was thus able to urge the jury to find this lack of inquiry evidence of a guilty conscience. More particularly, he argued: "If he didn't do it and he was, as he said, a loving spouse that cared about his wife, the relationship, that things were getting better, if that were true, wouldn't he have called the police to inquire at the very least." The petitioner was again convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. He appealed the conviction to the Court of Special Appeals, where he argued, inter alia, that the trial court erred by admitting the evidence concerning the July 30, 1985 physical dispute and evidence regarding his failure to inquire about the status of the police investigation. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed the conviction, reasoning that

"Elimination prints" are fingerprints taken from a low probability suspect, which are then measured against fingerprints lifted from the crime scene, in order to eliminate the possible suspect from a list of suspects.
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"[i]n combination with evidence of [the petitioner's] efforts to hinder the investigation,3 [the petitioner's] failure or refusal to maintain contact with the investigating officers was admissible circumstantial evidence of guilt." With regard to the petitioner's relationship with his wife, that court reasoned that evidence of the petitioner's "stormy" relationship with her was properly admitted because, the evidence was: "not offered to establish a propensity for violent conduct. The State was entitled to establish that appellant had both a personal motive and an economic motive to murder the victim." The petitioner filed a timely petition for certiorari, which we granted in order to consider the important evidentiary issues raised. II. A. First, the petitioner argues that the evidence offered to establish that he did not inquire about the progress of the police investigation into his wife's murder was inadmissible to prove a consciousness of guilt. He contends that culpability for murdering his wife cannot logically be inferred from the failure to inquire. Citing Bedford v. State, 317 Md. 659, 667-68, 506 A.2d 111, 115 (1989), and Pettie v. State, 316 Md. 509, 519-20, 560 A.2d 577, 581-82 (1989), the petitioner argues that, because, as it is in this case, the failure to inquire is so ambiguous and is subject to so many interpretations, evidence of the lack of inquiry cannot be probative of consciousness of guilt and, therefore, simply is irrelevant.

Prior to the petitioner's arrest the victim's brother, Mr. Johnson, posted a $10,000 reward for information leading to the murderer. The State elicited testimony from Mr. Johnson that, upon learning of the reward, the petitioner stated, "the murder will never be solved." The State also offered testimony from another witness that the petitioner told him not to cooperate with the police because "they were not going to find out who did it." The State argued to the jury that these facts also exhibited a consciousness of guilt.
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The State disagrees. It argues that the petitioner misreads the threshold requirement for evidence to be considered relevant, and contends that the trial court properly admitted the evidence. Citing McCormick on Evidence

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