LAWTON – The co-owner of a petting zoo for children is scheduled for trial next January in Comanche County District Court on a felony charge of obtaining property/money by false pretenses.
Sammy Dwayne Snider is accused of “cheat[ing] and defraud[ing]” a Fletcher couple who paid him $23,600 to build a barn. His formal arraignment on the charge is set for Sept. 12 and a pretrial conference is scheduled for Dec. 19.
He also faces a separate felony charge which alleges that Snider engaged in “a confidence game” designed to be “a trick or deception and done with the intent to cheat and defraud” an Elgin man.
Snider is represented in both cases by Oklahoma City attorney Dan Delluomo.
Snider, 50 lists a Fletcher address but does not live in the corporate limits of the town, Police Chief Jason DeLonais told Southwest Chronicle in April.
DeLonais said James O’Leary, 51, and his wife, Neta, 71, contacted his office on Sept. 23, 2021, “with a complaint about being financially exploited” by Snider.
The O’Learys reported communicating with Snider in 2020 about building a barn for them. Snider’s financial records showed that he deposited a $14,000 check from the O’Learys on Nov. 4, 2020; a $5,200 check from the couple on Jan. 28, 2021; and a $4,400 check from the couple on Feb. 25, 2021.
“Some of that money was for materials and some was for labor,” DeLonais said.
Snider completed the concrete work and the frame for the structure but then “broke off contact” with the O’Learys, DeLonais said. Snider “has completed no additional work since then,” the affidavit for his arrest warrant relates.
Fletcher Police Officer Dustin Wilson gathered enough evidence to secure a probable cause warrant to obtain Snider’s financial records. “Officer Wilson found some inconsistencies, some things we thought the district attorney should take a look at,” DeLonais said.
Wilson reported that when Snider accepted the O’Learys’ payments his bank account had been overdrawn three times “and had an insufficient funds charge.”
A separate felony charge accuses Snider of swindling an Elgin man.
On Sept. 16, 2020, Joel Dale Fogelstrom and Snider “agreed to a construction project” at Fogelstrom’s residence in Elgin, Comanche County Sheriff’s Department Detective Chad Kenyon wrote in an affidavit for an arrest warrant.
Snider was supposed to replace the roof on Fogelstrom’s house, build two porches and pour a cement slab for the front porch, Kenyon reported. Snider accepted from Fogelstrom a check for $27,250 which Snider deposited into his bank account.
After several months “with no contact” from Snider, Fogelstrom “reach[ed] out” more than once “to find out when he was going to start the construction.” Each time Snider gave him an excuse, “ranging from” Snider claiming he had contracted COVID-19 to “his son having heart issues” to Snider “having cancer.”
After Snider was arrested for allegedly cheating the O’Learys, Fogelstrom contacted Kenyon and told him that Snider “approached him on March 1 and March 4, 2022,” seeking approval to “pay him back a little at a time.” Fogelstrom said he asked Snider “where his money was” but Snider “would not answer him.”
Assistant District Attorney John Roose filed the second felony charge against Snider on April 6. A preliminary hearing conference in that case originally was set for July 18 but was rescheduled to Sept. 26 “to allow time for further negotiation,” court records show.
Snider is listed, along with his wife, as a co-owner of Snider Family Exotics Petting Zoo east of Sterling off state Highway 17. That facility provides “a unique hands-on experience” and, according to its Facebook page, features a variety of animals.