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Verdict expected today in trial of ex-NBA player

Jury will hear closing statements in the case this morning.

Kirk Snyder appears in Warren County Common Pleas Court on Monday, March 29, for the first day of his trial. Staff photo by Apryl Pilolli

Apryl Pilolli/Staff photographer Kirk Snyder appears in Warren County Common Pleas Court on Monday, March 29, for the first day of his trial. Staff photo by Apryl Pilolli

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By Denise G. Callahan, Staff Writer Updated 9:19 AM Thursday, April 1, 2010

LEBANON — A forensic psychiatrist testified Wednesday, March 31, that ex-NBA player Kirk Snyder did not knowingly attack his neighbor a year ago.

Dr. Mel Nizny, who saw Snyder in the Warren County Jail a week after the attack on March 30, 2009, said Snyder, who suffers from bipolar disorder, psychosis and paranoia, is not legally responsible for his actions.

“He starts hitting Dr. Roberts, for what reason? He has no clue,” Nizny testified for the defense. “He doesn’t know why, there was no provocation.”

Snyder, 26, is accused of breaking into Bradley and Eugenia Robert’s townhouse in the Beacon Hill Townhouses in Deerfield Twp. in the middle of the night and assaulting a man in his bedroom. He is charged with aggravated burglary, felonious assault and assault.

Snyder’s trial began Monday, March 29, in Warren County Common Pleas Court. If convicted, he could be sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Judge Neal Bronson sent the jury home Wednesday afternoon, March 31, after listening to two psychiatrists. The group will hear closing statements in the case this morning, April 1, before making its decision.

Nizny, on the stand for four hours, said in his first meeting with Snyder, the former pro basketball player didn’t want to talk to him.

“He was not in touch with reality,” he said. “He barely knew he was in the jail or why he was there.”

The prosecution’s expert, Dr. Kim Stookey, testified that she found Snyder was not insane when he attacked his neighbor. Stookey said he came in by the back door away from view, cinched his hooded sweatshirt over his face to disguise his identity and fled the scene to avoid detection. Those actions, she said prove he knew what he was doing was wrong.

Snyder moved to his posh townhouse in Deerfield Twp. in September 2008 after his wife kicked him out of their farm house in Bethel and just before he went to play basketball in China.

He returned from China in March 2009 and that’s when he met the Roberts, who have shared a dental practice in Symmes Twp. for 30 years.

Eugenia Roberts met Snyder first a couple days before he smashed the Roberts’ rear French doors with a landscape rock, charged through the house, shoving her aside. He got to the master bedroom and began pummeling Brad Roberts first with his fists and then with an alarm clock.

Snyder led the University of Nevada to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16 in 2004. He was the 16th player taken in the 2004 NBA draft and played for several NBA teams before spending the past season in a pro league in China.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.

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