Man declared insane, acquitted of murder
Karl Sneider, who was accused of stabbing and beheading his mother, remains in the custody of Cook County mental health officials after a judge ruled Tuesday that the Palatine man was not guilty by reason of insanity.
Sneider, 28, was charged with first-degree murder in the decapitation slaying of his mother, Kathryn Sneider, 49, in January 2003 at their home on North MacArthur Drive in Palatine.
Karl Sneider will be in the care of the Cook County Department of Mental Health for an unspecified amount of time and may be re-evaluated in the future, a Cook County State's Attorney's Office spokesman said Tuesday after Cook County Circuit Judge John J. Scotillo's ruling at the courthouse in Rolling Meadows.
Sneider chose a bench trial before Scotillo instead of a jury trial.
Several psychologists testified that Sneider was legally insane at the time he killed his mother, whom he then believed was Satan.
Dr. Susan Messina said she had interviewed Karl Sneider several times. Her initial interview was less than a month after the murder.
"At that time, he was coherent although his speech showed significant distortion in content," said Messina, who added that Karl Sneider showed signs of "elaborate grandiose delusion and perceived himself to be Jesus Christ at the time."
Sneider had a history of drug abuse and theft to support his addiction. From 1993 to 2001, he was arrested multiple times for residential burglary, theft, domestic battery and drug possession. According to court records, during the course of one crime, he was using crack cocaine.
Family members said Sneider had made an effort to get off and stay off drugs and entered a rehabilitation program.
Police and prosecutors said after Karl Sneider punched and stabbed his mother, he then cut off her head, placed it on the front porch and stole a neighbor's car, which was warming up in the driveway.
The neighbors called Palatine police, and an alert was sent out on the vehicle. The car crashed into a fence along the Northwest Tollway near Roselle Road in Schaumburg. Karl Sneider was apprehended by police after he left the home of a Schaumburg man who believed Sneider was homeless and invited him inside.
Kathryn Sneider had two jobs in Vernon Hills. Along with her full-time job at a financial services company, she also worked part-time at a department store to help pay for her son's treatment for drug addiction.
Posted by Ron at August 25, 2004 06:51 AM