A Story Recanted
Jamie Snow’s Journey to Freedom
On Easter Sunday, 1991, a gas station in Bloomington, Illinois would be robbed at gunpoint. Tragically, Billy Little, the attendant working that night, would be killed — shot to death for the money in his cash register.
Investigators collected evidence from the crime scene including fingerprints, shoe prints and even a potential DNA sample, but they struggled for years to nail down who the armed robber was. It wasn’t until 8 years later that a witness would pick out a man named Jamie Snow from a lineup. Jamie was a person the police had their eye on from the beginning, but the witness had previously failed to pick him out from photos and lineups. Now that this witness pointed at Jamie Snow, the police moved in on an arrest.
Jamie denied robbing the gas station and killing the attendant. He said he was at home eating dinner with his children at the time of the crime. Despite Jamie having an alibi and passing a polygraph test, the police finding no evidence to connect him to the crime scene and an eye witness that only pointed at Jamie eight years later, Jamie Snow would be tried and convicted.
He has been in prison for over 24 years now for a crime he says he did not commit — and once you hear the details of the investigation and trial, you’ll wonder how this all happened.
On March 31, 1991, 18-year-old William Little, who went by “Billy”, was working at a gas station on Clark Street in Bloomington, Illinois. It was Easter, Sunday — it should have been a quiet day, but instead, it was the last day of Billy’s life. At around 8:15 pm that evening, someone would rob the gas station, shooting Bill and taking a total of $92 from the cash register. A life was taken for under $100. Before taking his last breath, Billy would trip the silent alarm, sending the police to the gas station.
The first officer to respond was Officer Pelo of the Bloomington Police Department. When he arrives, he says he sees a man who is filling the air in his tires outside of the gas station and no one else. His name is Danny Martinez and he would become a key part of this investigation. When Officer Pelo enters the gas station, he finds Billy Little shot dead behind the gas station. No one else is inside — but there is a ton of evidence left behind, including bullet casings and bloody footprints, all of which are documented by investigators. They would also pull fingerprints and find DNA connected to the suspect.
Beyond the evidence, there would be three eyewitnesses to come forward, including the man who had been filling the air in his tires, Danny Martinez. Martinez told officers that he had just finished filling his tires when he heard two gunshots. He looked up at the gas station and said he saw a man walking backwards out the front door. Interestingly enough, this would contradict the statement given by the first officer on the scene, who didn’t see anyone other than Martinez at the gas station. Still, they took down his statement.
Martinez claimed to have come within a few feet of this man, so he saw his face and was able to put together a sketch. He says the man was around 5’8 tall with long brownish hair and facial stubble. He would later testify that he noticed the man’s eyes right away, saying
“His eyes was wide open like if he was out the whole night, and I’ll never forget those eyes.” | Source: https://casetext.com/case/snow-v-pfister
Martinez was not the only eyewitness to come forward with information. 14-year-old Carlos Luna lived across the street from the gas station and claimed to have been looking out his window at the time of the robbery. He said that from across the street, he saw a white male wearing a trench coat walking out of the gas station. Though the robbery happened in the evening and it would have been dark, Luna claimed to have seen the man’s face.
A third witness, named Gerardo Gutierrez, would later come forward to say that he was there just before the robbery getting gas. When he went inside to pay, he saw a man talking to Billy and his behaviour suggested he was trying to shield his face away from being seen. He described this person as being around 6’0 tall, with a mustache and a gold earring. He also had a bloody cut across his chin. A completely different description than the one given by Martinez.
While the gas station robbery was happening across town, Jamie Snow was enjoying dinner with his wife and kids. It was an eventful Easter Sunday with an egg hunt for the little ones followed by a big dinner. He would hear about the robbery on the local news — a total tragedy — but at the time, he had no idea how much that single event would dramatically change his life.
About a month after the Clark Street gas station robbery where Billy Little had been killed, the police took Jamie Snow into the station for questioning. They believe he is a suspect in another gas station robbery that had happened a month before this one. I think it’s important to note here that Jamie Snow was not a complete angel, he did have a criminal history of petty theft at the time, but there was nothing on his record to indicate he was violent. Jamie would deny his involvement in either of the gas station robberies but the police believe they have their man. Charges in the first gas station robbery case would later be dropped, but the police were not giving up on this one.
Though Jamie’s fingerprints and shoeprints don’t match the ones found at the crime scene, investigators ask Jamie to participate in a police line-up related to the Clark Street gas station robbery. Remember, three witnesses claimed they had seen the face of a man there at the time of the robbery.
The first witness, Danny Martinez, the man who had been filling his tires with air at the time of the robbery, picks out two men that he thinks could be the culprit. Neither of the men picked were Jamie Snow. Martinez would be brought in three more times to try to identify the suspect from a photo lineup. He did not identify Jamie Snow at any of these times.
Gerardo Gutierrez, who says he was there pumping gas just before the robbery occurred said he didn’t recognize anyone from the lineup as the man he saw talking to the attendant, Billy. The third witness, teenager Carlos Luna who lived across the street, would pick Jamie Snow out of a lineup but he said he wasn’t all that sure this was the suspect. Luna’s witness testimony is particularly a point of contention, because he only saw the person from his window across the street, and it was dark out. There were doubts even amongst investigators.
A police memo would reveal,
“The reason that Carlos Luna did not positively pick someone out of the lineup is he couldn’t if he wanted to. I interviewed him and his friend the night of the murder. I talked to them that night, and a few days later, individually. Neither of the boys could see the person clearly. I stood at the window they looked out and it was difficult to identify the people running around on the lot and I knew most of them. There was no way they could make an I.D.” | Source: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2023-10-04/jamie-snows-lawyers-police-had-doubts-about-witness-id-statements
One would think that without a reliable identification, investigators would move on from Jamie and begin to look at other possible suspects, but this doesn’t happen. It appears that Jamie Snow remains the prime suspect and the police have their work cut out for them trying to connect the dots. Jamie is so distraught that he offers to take a polygraph test. Jamie Snow passed the polygraph test, but it wouldn’t be enough to save him in the end.
Jamie isn’t arrested at the time, because there isn’t anything to connect him to the Clark Street robbery other than the police believing they have a hunch. He decides to move to Florida to get some space away from the investigation. He also starts his tree-trimming business to earn an honest living and tries to put the past behind him, but the past never stays where it is.
In 1994, Jamie would be charged and plead guilty to obstruction of justice related to another crime. He would spend two years behind bars. Once released, he returned to live in Florida, where he was completely unaware of the case that was being built against him back in Bloomington, Illinois.
It wouldn’t be until September 1999, eight years after the gas station robbery and murder, that Jamie Snow was indicted for the murder of William Little.
Jamie was completely blindsided and maintained his innocence. He said there was no way that he could have done it, he was at home enjoying his Easter Sunday with his family during the time of the robbery. But the police had a little something in their back pocket: a letter from a jailhouse informant who says he knows Jamie killed Billy because Jamie bragged about it while they were serving time together. He’ll tell them everything he knows — for a deal. Despite there being no actual evidence to connect Jamie Snow to the gas station robbery, investigators make a deal with several jailhouse informants who will testify against Jamie in exchange for cash or time served.
The police also bring Jamie in for one final police line-up with their star witness, Martinez — the man who was putting air in his tires. This is the 5th time he is asked to pick out the robber out of a lineup and it has now been eight years that have passed since he had seen this person’s face. This time, he picks Jamie out of the lineup. To be clear, this is a man who says he came face to face with the suspect and could never forget his eyes — yet he failed to pick out Jamie until the 5th lineup, eight years later. Do with that information what you will.
Jamie’s sister-in-law Susan Claycomb, was also arrested in connection to the crime. Police believed that she was the getaway driver. Susan sadly had a long history of abusing drugs and alcohol. She couldn’t remember where she was at the time of the robbery and would often get mixed up and confused by her memories. Allegedly, she had told a few different people that she thought she could have been there, she may have been the getaway driver, but just as quickly and easily she’d say she had no memory of that at all. In the end, she denied any involvement and also denied that Jamie had anything to do with it.
Susan would go to trial before Jamie. The prosecution wanted to charge her with first-degree murder because they alleged she drove the getaway car that night. They attempted to offer her a deal in exchange for a lesser sentence, but Susan refused. She refused to flip on her brother-in-law. At trial, Susan would be acquitted. There wasn’t enough evidence to bring about a conviction.
However, this did not stop the district attorney’s office from continuing with the case against Jamie Snow.
At trial, Jamie would be represented by attornies Patrick Riley and Frank Picl — they were assigned by the state. It is alleged that Picl was an alcoholic with a severe gambling problem and would even show up to court intoxicated. Jamie wrote a letter to the judge asking for a continuance because he didn’t believe his attorneys were prepared. It should have been ruled ineffective counsel, but instead, his request was denied and his attorneys remained on his case. Years later, that same attorney would be disbarred after being accused of stealing money from one of his elderly clients — not someone you would want fighting for your freedom, but it's all Jamie had.
Jamie’s trial lasted nine days and had many of the same witnesses who testified at Susan Claycomb’s trial. The state would call 43 witnesses, including the three eyewitnesses who were at or near the gas station that evening. Martinez, the air tire guy, talked about how he saw a man leaving the gas station after hearing two pops. He admitted he was initially unable to identify Jamie from the lineups, but years later when he saw his photo in the newspaper, he said he recognized him. They called this supposed star witness to the stand, even though his statement directly contradicted the statement given by the first police officer on the scene — who claimed he didn’t see anyone else at the gas station.
The prosecution would call several jailhouse informants to the stand who would testify that at one point or another, they heard Jamie admit to the robbery and murder. The whole case heavily relied on these testimonies, because there weren’t any fingerprints, footprints, blood or DNA evidence that connected Jamie to the crime scene. More than 17 witnesses for the prosecution have since recanted their testimonies.
As for the defence, Jamie repeated his alibi. On the night of March 31, 1991, he said he was at his home with his wife and children. His wife would also testify that they were at home together. It’s probably one of the worst alibi to have because most people assume that a wife will lie for her husband just to keep him out of jail. But what can you do if it’s the truth?
In the end, Jamie Snow would be found guilty of first-degree murder. A decision made solely on the eyewitnesses who had failed to pick him out of a lineup so many times before, the testimony of jailhouse informants who were offered deals, and Jamie’s somewhat sordid history. That’s it.
Jamie would try to fight it, citing ineffective assistance of counsel, but his motion was denied. His motion to reconsider was also denied. Jamie would try to appeal his conviction but it was denied by the Illinois Supreme Court, even though so many would recant their statements.
Jamie Snow has been in prison now for over 24 years. He still maintains his innocence and is fighting to have his freedom again. As it turns out, there is DNA evidence from this case that has gone untested all of these years but that could prove Jamie is innocent. Technology has come a long way. There were fingerprints lifted at the scene that didn’t match Jamie and can now be tested for DNA. There were two bullets recovered that can be tested for DNA, but can also be run through the FBI ballistics database to determine if the same gun had been used in any other crimes. The victim, William Little, has never had his clothing tested for touch DNA and there was even blood found at the scene that was never actually tested.
Strangely enough, the McLean County State’s Attorney’s Office has fought DNA testing in this case, which is incredibly frustrating, even though the University of Chicago’s Exoneration Project has agreed to pay for all the DNA testing at no cost to taxpayers. In their minds, this is a closed case. The bad guy has been caught and put behind bars. But when you look at the way this all played out — the lack of any actual physical evidence and the faulty eyewitnesses, it’s difficult to understand how one can sleep soundly at night knowing that there very well may be an innocent man behind bars, a man who has missed the opportunity to see his children and now even children grow up.
Sources:
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-7th-circuit/1887037.html
About the author
Nikki Young is the host of the international true crime podcast, Serial Napper. Each episode features a different true crime story, told succinctly the way it happened. Serial Napper is available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
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