A trial for Two Dogs Salvatore Fasaga began Tuesday in Lewis County Superior Court with a note from Judge J. Andrew Toynbee to the defense attorneys and state prosecutors who followed the case down from King County, where it was initially charged in 2020.
When a train goes by, Toynbee advised, stop and wait for it to pass. The horn is loud enough to drown out whatever is being said in the courtroom.
Sure enough, King County Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Scott M. O’Toole had to pause for a train in the middle of his opening testimony, where he argued in favor of finding Fasaga guilty of murdering Paul Snarski in May 2018.
Fasaga, 43, of Onalaska, is charged with one count each of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
The first-degree murder charge relies on proving premeditated intent to cause Snarski’s death, while the second-degree murder charge doesn’t require the state to prove premeditation, just that Fasaga assaulted Snarski with the intent to kill him. Both charges are class A felonies with maximum penalties of life in prison.
First-degree unlawful possession of a firearm is a class B felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Fasaga is accused of fatally shooting Snarski, also known as “Hound,” with a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol at Fasaga’s Onalaska residence late on May 11 or May 12, 2018, then dismembering Snarski’s body and having other people dispose of Snarski’s remains, vehicle and shoes, according to court documents.
Snarski was 40 years old at the time of his death. He was last seen alive on May 11, 2018, when he reportedly left his Auburn residence to spend Mother’s Day with his mom in Oregon, according to court documents.
Snarski’s brother reported him missing on May 29, 2018, starting an investigation into his disappearance.
About two months prior, on March 25, 2018, Snarski and Fasaga were reportedly involved in an unrelated incident in which Fasaga was the only person arrested, according to O’Toole, who argued Tuesday that Fasaga was “paranoid” and the March arrest “planted the seed in Mr. Fasaga” that led him to kill Snarski.
Fasaga and Snarski were “longtime associates” who “likely met while incarcerated together in their late teens at Green Hill School” and had associated together, “on and off,” for over 20 years, according to a detective’s report.
According to O’Toole, who was referencing testimony submitted by two material witnesses, Snarski and two others went to Fasaga’s Onalaska residence together on May 11, 2018, and while Snarski and one of the witnesses, identified in court documents by the initials J.D., were alone in the living room area of the house, Fasaga walked into the room with a firearm and shot Snarski in the head. J.D. then reportedly helped Fasaga “clean up” the evidence and stayed with him for two months until they were both arrested in July 2018 for alleged involvement in an unrelated incident.
Fasaga’s defense attorneys, Peter T. Connick and Peter T. Geisness, filed a last-minute motion two days before the trial began to attempt to suppress J.D.’s testimony, arguing that because J.D. has previously lied to law enforcement and has a history of drug-related criminal activity, her testimony in this case is not credible. Toynbee denied that motion on Tuesday due to its untimeliness, but said he may revise his decision sometime during the trial once he has a chance to go over the 41-page motion in depth.
Connick argued Tuesday the state’s case against Fasaga is dependent on testimony from two material witnesses: J.D. and a witness identified in court documents as L.J. who allegedly dumped a box given to him by Fasaga near Federal Way and then, when neighbors complained, moved the container to a remote area of Pierce County. Law enforcement searched the area described by L.J. in June 2019 and found a human torso that was later identified as Snarski’s, according to court documents.
In his opening statement on Tuesday, Connick questioned the credibility of both witnesses, arguing their respective criminal backgrounds and the existence of evidence proving the two separately lied to the police during the investigation into Snarski’s death invalidates their testimonies, without which Connick argued the state can’t prove Fasaga killed Snarski.
Trial is expected to continue through at least the end of this week, with King County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jacqueline Lawrence estimating witness testimony will finish by Tuesday, July 18.
Fasaga’s trial is being held as a bench trial, in which a jury is not involved and the presiding judge makes the final verdict.
“Trials are complicated. They’re difficult, they’re hard work,” Toynbee said at the start of Fasaga’s trial Tuesday morning. “We will do our best to get through this, I don’t want to say quickly, but as efficiently as possible.”
