Now that his murder trial is over, details of Neil Snelson’s criminal history can be revealed.
It’s a history that, by law, the Kelowna jury could not be made aware of so they wouldn’t be unduly influenced.
Snelson was on probation for previous sexual convictions at the time he killed Kelowna college student Jennifer Cusworth.
Starting when he was 19, Snelson was twice convicted of indecent exposure.
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He was sentenced for the second conviction just two months before he killed Cusworth.
Her family says they were unaware of Snelson’s past.
But “I think prior convictions should be taken into consideration,” Jennifer’s mom, Jean Cusworth, told CHBC News.
The first incident of exposure happened in Kelowna in 1987, three years after Snelson graduated from high school.
The second conviction was for an incident five years later involving a woman in Penticton.
In both cases, Snelson was sentenced to probation.
Snelson, 44, was found guilty this week in the cold case killing.
Cusworth, 19, was found strangled and clubbed to death in a ditch after a house party she and Snelson both attended in October 1993.
Snelson originally faced a first-degree murder charge, but a B.C. Supreme Court jury on Thursday convicted him on the lesser charge of manslaughter.
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