A Hays man was sentenced In Ellis County District Court Friday morning for sex crimes involving a child. Clinton Eugene Snavely, 49, was sentenced to 188 months in prison for two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and one count of aggravated sodomy. The sentencing was originally scheduled for Monday, November 25th, but was moved up to Friday, November 22nd.
Snavely had initially faced 14 counts which stemmed from incidents that occurred from 2002 to September of 2011, all of them felonies involving a minor. According to a plea agreement, Snavely pleaded “no contest” to three of the counts, and in doing so, the remaining charges were dismissed. A plea agreement allows the court to sentence a defendant without a trial, which would require victim(s) to testify.
Snavely’s victim, who was in attendance, was offered the opportunity to address the court.
“All I have to say is that I know you have to have certain guidelines to follow, but for what I’ve been through throughout my life, in my mind, there’s no certain amount of time that he could ever spend to make that up, make that all go away.”
Snavely has been incarcerated since September 28th of 2011, and his time served will apply toward his sentence. He will also be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, and be subject to life-long post-release supervision after he is released.
After the proceedings, Snavely turned and asked officers for a chance to apologize to his victim. Under supervision of officers and with a 3-foot-tall dividing wall between them, Snavely remained seated while he apologized to his victim, becoming emotional as he finished speaking.
“I’m sorry I hurt you. I didn’t mean to. There’s other things that happened that you don’t know….There’s a lot of stuff that I’ve done that you don’t know, that some other people in this court does…there’s a lot of my friends that died,there’s a lot that you don’t know, and I’m sorry that I hurt you…”
The victim, who remained silent, left the courtroom immediately following the apology. Snavely was then led by officers to be taken back to the Ellis County Jail, to await transport.
Drees told Hays Post after the proceedings that Snavely will be transferred to El Dorado before it is determined where he will serve the remainder of his sentence.