The man accused of briefly kidnapping an 8-year-old Aurora girl from her bedroom last month made his first appearance in court last week on kidnapping charges.
John Stanley Snorsky, 26, is facing four felonies — second-degree kidnapping, first-degree burglary, second- degree burglary and enticement of a child — as well as misdemeanor assault and child abuse charges. If convicted of all the charges, Snorsky could face more than 40 years in prison. Adams County Court Judge Robert S. Doyle told Snorsky on Nov. 8 that if he is able to post bail and is released from jail, he is barred from contact with the girl and her family and he is not allowed to use drugs or alcohol.
It doesn’t appear that Snorsky will be released from jail pending his trial. In addition to the hefty $500,000 bond in the kidnapping case, Snorsky is being held on a parole violation and theft charges out of Arapahoe County.
The parole violation alone could keep Snorsky behind bars until his prior sentence on burglary charges is complete in April 2014.
At the hearing in Brighton on Nov. 8, Snorsky waived his right to have the kidnapping charges against him read aloud.
Clad in an Arapahoe County jail jumpsuit, Snorsky said only “yes sir” and “no sir” during the brief proceeding. He advised the court that his name is pronounced “suh-now-ski.”
The judge denied a request by the Aurora Sentinel and Channel 7 News to take pictures and video of the proceedings.
The girl’s mother, father and grandmother were in court during the hearing but didn’t speak to the media. They used a back entrance to enter and leave the courtroom, avoiding cameras in the public hallway.
In an arrest affidavit filed against Snorsky, police say they found his DNA on clothes the girl was wearing Oct. 28 when investigators say the artist and deli employee snatched her in the middle of the night from her bed on
Hanover Street in north Aurora.
The girl told police that a man came to her window, said his name was “Jonathan,” told her he knew her parents and asked her to give him a hug. The girl said she told the man, “I can’t talk to strangers,” and tried to climb off the bed and flee.
But, the girl said, the man reached through the open window and grabbed her, covering her mouth with a gloved hand as he fled toward the alley behind the home, according to the affidavit.
The girl said she screamed, and the man dropped her. Her father ran out of the house and saw the man speed away in what he thought was a silver BMW sedan, but police now say was Snorsky’s silver Mercedes Benz.
A few days after the girl was kidnapped investigators turned their focus to Snorsky, who at that point was already behind bars on burglary and theft charges out of Arapahoe County, as well as the parole violation.
Police said a woman who said she was Snorsky’s foster mother called in a tip about him. The woman, who police say asked to remain anonymous, said she had seen Snorsky peruse child pornography before and that he recently started going by the name “Jonathan.” That detail was significant, police said, because police had not publicly said the girl told them the kidnapper said his name was Jonathan.
Rather than transfer Snorsky to the Adams County Jail, it appears he will stay behind bars in Arapahoe County and be transferred to Brighton for his next court hearing in December.
In interviews with police before he was charged with kidnapping, Snorsky told officers he had an alibi the night of the girl’s kidnapping. He said he was in Boulder that night, then a concert in Denver. He said he returned home around midnight and didn’t make any stops on the way.
Before he asked for a lawyer police said Snorsky told them he didn’t own a black jacket like the one the kidnapper wore. But when investigators later searched his home, they say they found a black jacket.