Cape Girardeau policeman testifies in Julian trial

CALLAWAY COUNTY, Mo. — The evening of Feb. 14, Cape Girardeau policeman Darin Hickey knew there had been two calls to dispatch requesting officer assistance at 2857 Themis Street because an officer with the Division of Probation and Parole was attempting to serve a warrant on a subject for parole absconder, but didn't detect any particular urgency in those calls, Hickey testified Monday afternoon.

Hickey was the second witness to testify in the first day of a two-day trial in the shooting death of Zachary C. Snyder, who died on Feb. 14 after being reportedly shot by Steven R. Julian while Julian was serving a warrant for Snyder's arrest. Julian is charged with involuntary manslaughter in Snyder's death.

The shift had just changed at 7 p.m., and Hickey was still in briefing when Julian, then a fugitive recovery agent with the Missouri Department of Corrections, requested assistance in serving a warrant on Snyder, whom he believed was at the address on Themis Street.

Hickey loaded his patrol car and was en route to the apartment complex when dispatch informed him of a report of shots fired, he testified.

"I asked whether it involved the probation and parole officer, and they said it did," he testified.

At the scene, Hickey testified he found a subject lying on the ground, and two other males standing near him. One of them, later identified as Julian, had a badge around his neck.

"Mr. Julian stated, I shot him in the back," Hickey testified.

When emergency workers moved Snyder to transport him to the hospital, Hickey realized from his wounds that the bullet had pierced cleanly through his body, and retrieved the shell casing in some snow to the north of where Julian's vehicle was parked.

Dr. Russell Diediker, a forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on the victim, testified that Snyder died of a gunshot wound that entered just below his right shoulder blade and exited through the left side of his chest.

Look for more on the first day of Julian's trial later at semissourian.com or in Tuesday's Southeast Missourian.