Man sentenced to 30 years for Allen homicide

Published 9:49 am Thursday, May 7, 2026

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Glen Snook

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Johnny Lee Crawford

SCOTTSVILLE — Johnny Lee Crawford was remembered by his sister, Heather Roddy, as a friend who loved a good song and as a protective, supportive figure.

Whether it was singing their favorite songs together during road trips or lifting her spirits after a pregnancy ended in miscarriage, Crawford had an outsize role in Roddy’s life.

“My brother encouraged me to put myself out there and believe in myself more,” Roddy said.

Roddy shared her memories of her brother Tuesday in an Allen County courtroom, where Crawford’s killer was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Crawford, 31, of Bethpage, Tennessee, died March 11, 2024, from multiple gunshot wounds outside the McDonald Road home of his girlfriend in the Adolphus community.

Glen “Lenny” Snook, 70, of Adolphus, pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, first-degree criminal mischief, tampering with physical evidence and convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

“The pain doesn’t fade, it simply becomes something I wake up with and carry every single day,” Roddy said, reading from a victim impact statement at Snook’s sentencing hearing in Allen Circuit Court.

Crawford’s interests included playing guitar and going fishing with his grandfather.

When he died, Crawford left behind a 5-year-old son, and Roddy since gave birth to a daughter who Crawford will not get a chance to meet.

“Now all I have left are memories and pictures,” Roddy said.

Eight relatives and another close friend of Crawford’s either gave victim impact statements in court or submitted written statements ahead of Tuesday’s sentencing.

Crawford’s mother, Catina Crawford, lamented that her son’s life ended before he had a chance to form more lasting memories with his own son.

“Every memory I have of him is sacred — we watched him learn, stumble, grow and dream and we loved him through every stage of his life,” Catina Crawford said. “He had a good heart and he always wanted to do better for himself and his little boy.”

Under the terms of his plea agreement, Snook will serve the sentence for each count consecutively to one another, adding up to a 30-year sentence, though he will be eligible to meet the parole board after serving 85% of the 10-year sentence he agreed to on the count of first-degree manslaughter.

Catina Crawford said she would continue to advocate for her son after Snook’s incarceration begins.

“I will do everything in my power to ensure you remain behind bars with every breath in my body,” Crawford said, addressing Snook.

Johnny Crawford’s body was found March 20, 2024, under a pile of debris in a burn pit in the backyard of the McDonald Road home where he stayed with his girlfriend.

Kentucky State Police were contacted that day by the Allen County Sheriff’s Office to take part in what was at first considered a missing person investigation.

According to court records, Crawford’s mother contacted police to report that she had not seen or heard from her son in several days and found a boot belonging to him near the burn pit when they went up to the house.

Through investigation, police learned that Snook had threatened on “several occasions” to kill Crawford.

KSP detectives obtained video surveillance from the residence showing Snook moving a large trash can that police would later learn had “large amounts of blood” inside.

Snook was arrested at his home, and he confessed to shooting Crawford.

In a police interview, Snook claimed he got into a verbal altercation and fired two warning shots over Crawford’s head before firing another three shots that caused his death, court records show.

After the shooting, Snook set Crawford’s truck on fire and hid the rifle used in the shooting in a wooded area behind his home, according to his arrest citation.

Snook reportedly claimed that Crawford brandished a knife during the confrontation and threatened him with it, then told police he was unable to find the knife at his home, the citation said.

Snook claimed that Crawford’s girlfriend had called him to her residence in an effort to get Crawford to leave.

In a document filed April 21 by Snook’s attorney, Kayla Fugate of the Department of Public Advocacy, supplementing a pre-sentence investigation report, Snook was described as someone who “has a history of being manipulated easily by women,” with an ex-wife of his reporting that the only reason she could imagine Snook to have committed the crimes to which he pleaded guilty was that “a woman enticed him to come over.”

“Mr. Snook loves younger women, and he may have become infatuated leading to the events of this case,” Fugate stated in the filing.

Allen County Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Lindsey discounted the filing in court as “self-serving” with little sign of remorse from Snook for his conduct.

At the end of the hearing, Allen Circuit Judge Mark Thurmond commended Crawford’s family for their conduct throughout the court proceedings, telling the group they honored Crawford’s memory that way.

“Your son’s life did matter and he did not deserve this,” Thurmond said to Crawford’s parents. “My hope is that after this process, at some point it’s going to be up to all of you to make sure that the way his life was taken doesn’t define the way that he lived.”