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Thursday, October 03, 2002

By Martha Bryson Hodel, The Associated Press

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- A former Marshall University college student testified yesterday that investigators bullied and coerced her into confessing that she killed a University of Pittsburgh exchange student in South Korea last year.

Kenzi Snider, 21, testified in federal court for the first time since she was arrested earlier this year in the death of Jamie Lynn Penich, who was beaten and kicked to death in a Seoul motel room in March 2001.

Snider recounted taking part in repeated interviews with investigators for the FBI and the U.S. Army, which was responding to early reports that American soldiers might have been involved in Penich's death.

Prosecutors contend that Snider beat and stomped Penich to death in a rage triggered by a sexual advance from Penich.

After hours of interrogation and repeated queries about where Penich was standing in the motel room, Snider said she told the investigators that "there's a cloud in front of my brain...

"I'm trying to fight through the clouds and I can't find where she was when she took off her bra," Snider said.

"There's no picture before he asked the question; it's just gray and then he'll ask a question and it will start to get lighter and a picture came into my brain," she said. "I'm trying to fight through the clouds; she drew me to her and we kissed," she said she told the investigators.

"They asked, 'Why did you stomp on her?' I said I picked up my foot and I made her stop looking at me with my foot...

"I tried to make her stop looking at me with my foot and I put my foot down on something soft," Snider said.

After the interview was over, Snider said she was more confused than ever.

"I'm fighting through the clouds again ... trying to make it all make sense," she said. "I was running through what I told them, and it didn't seem real."

The purpose of yesterday's hearing before federal Magistrate Judge Maurice Taylor is to decide whether Snider should be returned to South Korea to stand trial there for Penich's murder. If convicted, she could be sentenced to death.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Ellis said the government needs only to prove that there is probable cause for Snider to be tried for the crime, rather than the higher standard of beyond a reasonable doubt that is required at trial.

"It doesn't even have to be a 50 percent likelihood," Ellis said, adding that Snider has confessed at least three different times to different people.

Ed Weis, Snider's lawyer, argued that the only evidence against Snider is her confession to the FBI. He said there was no transfer of blood or DNA from Penich onto Snider's clothes.

FBI Agent Mark DeVittis agreed that the motel room was "a very bloody scene."

"I can't explain why there wasn't any transfer," DeVittis said, adding that the clothes could have been washed. Snider's boots were never recovered, he said.

Linwood Smith, another FBI agent, said Snider's confession was anything but dramatic.

"She just related it to me like she was talking about a football game, very calm," he said.

The hearing continues today.