Woman convicted in death of teen is sent back to jail

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A judge has ordered a woman charged with child endangering and gross abuse of a corpse in the 2001 drowning death and dismemberment of 15-year-old Jimmy P. Higham to finish her four-year prison term.

On Tuesday, Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ordered Jennifer Snyder, 39, to complete the final 160 days of her prison term. Snyder’s accumulated jail and prison time to date is 1,300 days.

The judge made her decision after Snyder opted not to contest the Adult Parole Authority’s contention that she violated terms of her probation by using heroin, failing to report to her parole officer as instructed, failing to keep her parole officer informed of her residence, and living with another probationer without her parole officer’s knowledge or permission.

Judge Sweeney had released Snyder from prison to three years of probation Jan. 20, 2010.

Judge Sweeney sentenced David Sharpe, 49, to 71/2 years in prison in April 2009 after he pleaded guilty to reckless homicide, attempted tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse in Higham’s death.

Authorities believe Higham drowned about June 15, 2001, in a bathtub during a domestic dispute in the Manchester Avenue house where Sharpe and Snyder lived.

Snyder’s lawyer, Lou DeFabio, said Snyder relapsed into drug abuse after suffering a near-death experience and a lengthy hospitalization after a motorcycle accident last year.