Massena man's trial for SUNY Potsdam murder pushed back

By Andy Gardner.

POTSDAM – Michael Snow’s murder trial, originally scheduled to start Jan. 23, is being indefinitely pushed back, pending standard pre-trial hearings that have yet to take place.

The 31-year-old Massena resident is accused of shooting and killing Elizabeth Howell, 21, on College Park Road near the SUNY Potsdam campus on Feb. 18, 2022.

A grand jury in April of last year handed up an indictment charging Snow with four felonies: second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, first-degree assault and first-degree criminal use of a firearm. He has denied the charges.

If convicted of murder, Snow faces up to a life sentence in state prison. He is represented by St. Lawrence County Chief Public Defender James McGahan.

The murder trial was originally scheduled to start Jan. 23. St. Lawrence County District Attorney Gary Pasqua said both he and McGahan attended a closed-door pre-trial conference on Wednesday, Jan. 18. It happened in the judge’s chambers with St. Lawrence County Court Judge Greg Storie.

During that, both the prosecution and defense requested the Jan. 23 trial date be pushed.

Pasqua said an additional Jan. 30 trial date, which had originally been placed on the court’s calendar at the same time as the Jan. 23, has also been called off.

“It was originally scheduled for start dates both weeks,” Pasqua said. “The court removed it from the first week, but did not remove it from the second week.”

“I do not expect to go forward on Jan. 30. That is my expectation,” he said. “At this point, we haven’t completed the pretrial process. There are still hearings that need to be conducted.”

Pasqua said Snow has the right to request those hearings, via pretrial motions, where he can request the judge rule on things like the evidence suppression and validity of any statements that may have been made to police.

“That would have to happen in a case as serious as this,” the DA said. “(Not holding the hearings) would be setting this up for an appeal, if there’s a conviction later on. It would be inappropriate to go forward without the defendant having the opportunity to file those motions.”

McGahan could not be reached for comment.

Last year, investigators searched rivers for the gun Snow allegedly used to kill Howell, along the route Snow is believed to have taken after the shooting on College Park Road near the SUNY Potsdam campus. He went east on Route 11B to Malone, north on Route 37 to Akwesasne and west on Route 37 back to Massena.

State police divers the week of Aug. 22 searched the Raquette and St. Regis rivers below bridges that cross those waters along Route 37 in Akwesasne.

In May, state police divers searched the west branch of the St. Regis River below a bridge along Route 11B. They didn’t find the weapon. As of Wednesday, Jan. 18, Mr. Pasqua said it still hadn’t turned up.

Snow was arrested the day after Howell’s murder, Feb. 19, 2022, in a police raid of his 250 Main St. apartment in Massena. Among the debris after the raid were two boxes of more than 100 spent miniature nitrous oxide canisters, which when huffed can cause audio hallucinations. There was also an unopened package of the canisters.

During Snow’s arraignment in April of last year, Pasqua told Judge Storie that investigators recovered a sawed-off shotgun while executing a search warrant at Snow’s apartment. That weapon is not believed to be tied to the murder.

Although Snow was arrested at the Main Street apartment, during his arraignment he told Judge Storie that he lives at 50 Park Ave. in Massena. He inherited the 50 Park Ave. house from his mother, Paula Snow, after she died there on April 1, 2019, allegedly by suicide.

A friend of Snow’s, 30-year-old Raymond Lancto III, also died in the 50 Park Ave. house, from a suspected drug overdose on Oct. 8, 2020.

Witnesses at the scene of Howell’s murder near the Crane School of Music on the evening of Feb. 18, 2022, told police they heard three shots fired from a gray four-door sedan, and they directed responding officers to the victim, who had fled a short distance on foot.

Howell was found unconscious at 5:51 p.m. that day, and responding officers initiated lifesaving measures. She was then taken to Canton-Potsdam Hospital, where she died just before 7 p.m., officials said.

Pasqua has said that Snow had no connection to Howell prior to the shooting.

Howell was studying music education at the Crane School of Music.

Her parents, Joe and Ann Howell, spoke about their daughter’s murder with The New York Post in February at the family’s home in Patterson, Putnam County, about 60 miles north of New York City. They said she was likely “a random victim in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The couple described Elizabeth, called Beth by family and friends, as “a talented musician, a dear friend, an all-around great person.” She was a cellist who performed with the Crane Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Howell said his daughter was “always willing to help you out.”