WOODLAND — The UC Davis chemistry researcher accused of keeping explosives-making materials in his campus apartment had been reprimanded in the past about making explosives in a campus lab, a Yolo County prosecutor revealed Friday in Yolo Superior Court.
Deputy District Attorney Martha Holzapfel also said 32-year-old David Scott Snyder asked a friend to remove incriminating evidence from his Russell Park residence before police descended on the place during the early morning hours of Jan. 17.
Among the items allegedly seized from Snyder’s apartment and at dump sites: a vial of nitroglycerin with an attached fuse, a vial of acetone peroxide, and a substance called research department explosive (RDX), an explosive nitroamine considered more powerful than TNT.
Snyder also had assembled a collection of more readily available items — such as hair dye, nail-polish remover and battery acid — “that, when combined, make explosives,” Holzapfel said.
“This is a hobby, and he likes to blow things up. …He’s not going to be able to stop it just because you told him ‘no,’ ” the prosecutor told Judge David Reed, who subsequently denied a motion by Snyder’s attorney, Linda Parisi, to reduce Snyder’s bail from $2 million to $500,000.
Parisi cited her client’s lack of criminal history, and said he posed neither a flight risk nor a threat to the university.
“He was the kind of chemist that was always tinkering and experimenting with things,” Parisi said.
But Reed said Snyder not only put himself at risk, but also exposed others to danger, including his neighbors, a nearby day-care center, and residents near the five Dumpsters in the Davis community where explosive-making materials allegedly had been disposed of.
Also Friday, prosecutors filed an amended complaint that increases the number of felony charges against Snyder from 10 to 17.
Snyder now faces four counts of reckless disposal of hazardous waste, two counts of possession of a destructive device or explosive, four counts of possession of materials with intent to make a destructive device and seven counts of possessing a firearm on university grounds.
Authorities have not specified the types of weapons found in Snyder’s apartment, but Parisi described them as “antiques” and said her client’s family has a long-standing interest in marksmanship.
Snyder, who earned both a bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. in chemistry from UCD, came under scrutiny at about 1:30 a.m. Jan. 17 when he sought treatment at Sutter Davis Hospital for a hand injury he suffered in what campus officials called a “small explosion” inside his apartment.
Police were sent to the apartment, but immediately retreated and evacuated the surrounding units until an explosives removal unit could be assembled and a search warrant obtained. About 75 people from four surrounding apartment buildings were evacuated during what turned out to be a 20-hour removal process.
Snyder’s next court hearing is scheduled for March 14.
Read the complete story in Sunday’s Enterprise.