Alabama doctor acquitted in rock guitarist’s overdose death
MOBILE, Ala. — Jurors acquitted an Alabama physician accused of prescribing drugs that killed a former guitarist for rock band 3 Doors Down.
The not guilty verdict was returned Monday in the case of Dr. Richard Snellgrove, court documents show. Snellgrove had been indicted on 13 counts of unlawful distribution of drugs and health care fraud tied to the 2016 death of Matthew Roberts.
Prosecutors said Snellgrove prescribed drugs to Roberts even though he knew Roberts struggled with addiction. Snellgrove’s lawyer, Dennis Knizley, said the physician’s actions were reasonable and prosecutors targeted Snellgrove because Roberts was famous.
Knizley said text messages introduced by the defence at trial showed that Roberts was seeking illegal drugs in addition to medications he got from Snellgrove. The defence argued that alone showed Roberts’ death couldn’t be hung on Snellgrove.