Snow was the state’s initial witness Monday as the first-degree murder trial of Kevin Francis began before Judge Edward Rubin. Francis elected to have a bench trial rather than a jury trial.
He and two others were charged in the case. Two have pleaded to reduced charges and may testify in the case. Francis was 16 at the time of the crime; the other two were 15.
Snow said he was at a West Crowley house lighting a cigarette at the kitchen stove about 1 a.m. when he heard voices in an adjoining utility room.
Before he could react, he testified, three men knocked down a door from that room into the kitchen. He fled to a nearby bedroom, where Bonin was sleeping.
In another bedroom, a five-year-old girl, the daughter of another resident of the house, who was at work, slept while horror unfolded.
Snow, who testified Monday that his recall of the night is spotty, told police twice on the morning of the crime that he did not recognize the assailants, said he lied because he was scared of retribution should he “rat” on the trio.
He said his mother subsequently convinced him he had to tell the truth and that he did so in a later interview with Assistant DA Roger P. Hamilton, Jr., the prosecutor in court Monday.
Snow testified the three interlopers handed him a cell phone and dragged him and Bonin from the bedroom to the living room, ordering him to call “C” and have him return to the house. “C”, whose name was not used in court, apparently owed the trio money, did not respond.
Snow said the intruders tied him and Bonin with cord of some kind and placed them face down in the living room.
He testified he did not immediately recognize the trio but did as he heard voices and caught glimpses of them. He later picked them out of police mugshot lineups, testimony showed.
“They were looking around for money. Then started throwing eggs, cookies and Ranch dressing on us. I was pistol whipped again and told not to look at them.
“Linda was crying. She tried to reason with them. They shot the TV three times.
“Later Claude (Williams, a co-defendant) shot me in the arm,” he asserted. Snow said he played possum, hoping the trio would think him dead.
“After they shot me, they raped her with something I couldn’t see, then backed off and told her to shut up. She didn’t and Kevin Francis put a gun to her head and shot her,” Snow testified.
Defense attorney Harold Register, Jr. hammered at what coul be termed Snow’s selective memory, as well as intimating he questioned how much Snow could see from his peripheral vision while face down on the floor.
Other witnesses included Crowley police investigators, who produced the sex toy used to violate Bonin, and crime lab analysts who linked Francis tot the scene through DNA testing on a pair of gloves left there.
Trial resumes Tuesday.
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