BUNNELL, Fla. (AP) - A former Florida death row inmate was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for killing his elderly neighbors.
Flagler County Circuit Judge Kathryn Weston gave David Snelgrove two consecutive life terms following a jury’s rejection of the death penalty, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. It was the third time prosecutors had attempted to have Snelgrove executed for the fatal robbery of his elderly neighbors.
Snelgrove was 28 years old in June 2000 when he broke into the Palm Coast home of Glyn and Vivian Fowler, ages 84 and 79. The couple had been asleep, but the husband woke up and interrupted the home invasion. Snelgrove beat, stabbed and strangled the couple before taking money and jewels that he could pawn to support his crack cocaine habit.
Snelgrove was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in 2002, and jurors voted 7-5 to recommend the death sentence. The Florida Supreme Court later reversed the sentence, ruling that jurors erred by making only one sentencing recommendation for the two murders. A second jury voted 8-4 to recommend the death penalty in 2008, but new death penalty regulations in 2017 require that recommendations for the death penalty be unanimous before a judge can render capital punishment.
Flagler County prosecutors failed to get a unanimous decision from the jury in Snelgrove’s latest sentencing.
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