Freddy Snyder, accused of killing Caltech astrophysicist Carl Grillmair, pleaded not guilty after prosecutors said he demanded his mother’s car keys and then drove to the scientist’s home, shooting him once in the neck. His preliminary hearing is set for June
In the early hours of Feb. 16. Freddy Snyder armed himself with two rifles and went to the shared home he lived in with his mother in the Mojave Desert. prosecutors said. He demanded that she hand over her car keys. When she refused. prosecutors allege Snyder fired a gunshot into the ceiling of their Llano home. then took the keys and drove off with her car.
Snyder later drove to the nearby home of Caltech astrophysicist Carl Grillmair. Prosecutors say Grillmair went outside onto his front porch to see what was happening. Snyder allegedly shot Grillmair once in the neck, killing him.
On Tuesday, Snyder pleaded not guilty to the killing of the 67-year-old Grillmair. He faces felony counts of murder, carjacking and first-degree residential burglary, according to a Los Angeles County district attorney’s office news release.
Investigators believe the two men did not know each other, and officials say they have found no clear motive for the killing.
For Snyder, the next scheduled step is a court date, not a verdict. His preliminary hearing is set for June 5 at the Antelope Valley Courthouse, officials said. He remains in custody in lieu of about $3.2 million in bail. If convicted as charged, Snyder faces up to life in prison.
The day-to-day details that brought investigators to Grillmair’s doorstep stretch back weeks before the fatal shooting. Officials and court documents indicate Snyder may have been on Grillmair’s property weeks earlier. On Dec. 20, Lt. Michael Modica of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the scientist spotted someone possibly trespassing on his land and called law enforcement.
Modica said deputies arrived and found Snyder in the area carrying a rifle. Modica added that Snyder told deputies he was on his way to the post office. Grillmair’s home and the local post office are in opposite directions from Snyder’s home, property records show.
That Dec. 20 stop led to additional charges. Snyder was charged with one felony count of carrying a loaded firearm after deputies noticed he was carrying a rifle that wasn’t registered in his name. He also was charged with trying to escape from the Palmdale station jail the day after he was arrested.
A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Department told The Times that deputies at the Palmdale station had no record of an attempted escape that day.
When Snyder appeared in court on Dec. 23, he was released on his own recognizance and ordered to complete a hunter safety course and obtain a hunting permit. At his next court hearing on Feb. 5, prosecutors asked the judge to drop the charges.
Grillmair’s background, in many ways, stands in sharp contrast to the violence that ended his life. Born in Alberta. Canada. he earned a doctorate from Australian National University and joined Caltech’s IPAC Science & Data Center for Astrophysics & Planetary Sciences in 1997. The university said he was a member of the instrument support teams for NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Spectrograph and Infrared Array Camera.
For investigators. prosecutors and the court. the case now turns on a sequence of allegations: an argument that prosecutors say began with car keys. a drive that prosecutors say ended at a porch in the Mojave Desert. and a shooting that prosecutors say left the astrophysicist dead. Snyder’s plea—entered Tuesday—means the legal process must sort through those claims before any lasting answers can be given.
Freddy Snyder Carl Grillmair Caltech astrophysicist pleaded not guilty Mojave Desert carjacking murder charge Los Angeles County DA Antelope Valley Courthouse