A US veterinarian accused of fatally shooting his pregnant mistress has waived his right to a preliminary hearing in Lehigh County Central Court, Pennsylvania, USA.
Dressed in a blue prison jumpsuit and wearing brown-rimmed glasses, David Rapoport appeared with defense attorneys John Griffin and John Waldron before District Judge Jacob Hammond. Rapoport did not speak during the proceedings.
Rapoport, 30, faces charges of criminal homicide and criminal homicide of an unborn child. His formal arraignment has been set for June 10, before Judge Steinberg in Lehigh County.
He will enter a plea there. Griffin said that, at this point, it will be a plea of not guilty.
Authorities claim the defendant, a married veterinarian who worked at the Harleysville Veterinary Hospital, shot Jennifer L. Snyder three times before dumping her body in a nature preserve.
Snyder, a Lower Macungie resident, was 10 to 12 weeks pregnant, according to the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office.
The defendant remains in Lehigh County prison without the possibility of bail, according to the court.
Authorities arrested Rapoport on March 22 in connection with the shooting death of Snyder, whose body was discovered four days earlier in a wooded ravine in the Trexler Nature Preserve in North Whitehall Township, near Allentown.
State police used an aerial search to find Snyder’s body on March 18 along Game Preserve Road in North Whitehall Township, according to the DA’s office.
An autopsy, completed the following day by county Coroner Scott Grimm, ruled the manner of death a homicide, with the cause of death being multiple gunshot wounds, according to authorities.
Two days later, they determined the cartridge casings found inside the victim’s vehicle and recovered at the Game Preserve Road scene had been discharged by the Glock owned by Rapoport.
The relationship between Rapoport and Snyder, a technician at a veterinary office near Allentown, lasted three years, according to Trina Angelovich, Snyder’s aunt.
“This wasn’t a fling,” Angelovich said.
Angelovich said her niece portrayed her alleged killer as caring man who intended to seek a divorce from his wife.
Snyder believed that David and Elizabeth Rapoport were separated and that their marriage was going to end, according to Angelovich. She said Snyder brought David Rapoport to a family wedding in September 2009.
“He was very pleasant,” Angelovich said. “Jennifer portrayed him as a caring man. He never gave us any idea he was not caring. He was a nice guy.”