Second murder trial begins for suspect in Bret Snow disappearance

A second jury began hearing evidence Tuesday in the first-degree murder case against one of four people charged with the slaying of Bret R. Snow, who authorities believe was killed and dismembered in a Newman Lake shop before his remains were hidden.

The jury from the first murder trial against Colby D. Vodder, 29, acquitted him on a charge of conspiracy to kidnap Snow. But the same jury deadlocked on a first-degree murder charge and a lesser charge of second-degree murder.

The results of the first trial, which ended in October, were not mentioned by either Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Brian Case or defense attorney Joseph Kuhlman in their opening arguments Tuesday.

Case told the jury that Cheryl L. Sutton and Kenneth Stone were renting the property at 7822 N. Starr Road near Newman Lake and were selling heroin and methamphetamine. Snow, who was also using drugs, sometimes delivered the drugs for Sutton and Stone.

But Sutton became enraged when Snow somehow botched a drug deal. Case said Tuesday that Sutton’s rage led to a struggle “where Mr. Snow was seriously injured.”

Vodder later told a witness that “a decision was made to kill Bret Snow. They dismembered him and he was disposed of in buckets,” Case said. “To this day, Mr. Snow’s body has never been found.”

Kuhlman, the defense attorney, said Sutton and Stone were running a methamphetamine distribution ring out of the North Starr Road home and Snow worked for them. Vodder purchased drugs from Stone and Sutton, he said.

He said the prosecution has built its case around the word of persons involved in the illicit drug trade.

“There is no motive for my client to do this,” Kuhlman said. “There is no physical evidence that will link Mr. Snow to Mr. Vodder.”

Snow was last seen alive on Dec. 2, 2015. His mother, Lori Rison, and his sister, Brittany Snow, began looking for him before reporting him missing on Dec. 15, 2015.

Spokane County Sheriff’s Detective Lyle Johnston began investigating and believes Snow was beaten to death and dismembered after a drug deal that went wrong. Detectives believe that suspects moved his body multiple times. They have interviewed more than a dozen people and reviewed cellphone records in an effort to find Snow’s remains.

That effort led detectives in 2017 to charge Sutton, Vodder, Alvaro Guajardo and Stone.

In April, Spokane County Superior Court Judge Raymond Clary, who is also presiding over Vodder’s second trial, ordered Sutton to serve about 31 years in prison after a jury convicted her on March 1 of first-degree murder in connection to the death of Snow.

“It’s never easy to impose the sentence on another human being,” Clary told Sutton on April 19. “It is my abiding sense that you were in charge over those men. I think you are dangerous. I think there is a lot more you could tell law enforcement that could ease the family’s pain.”