John Snyder

State police arrested a man Monday afternoon after they said he got into an altercation with two tree cutters in northern Butler County, robbing one of them of a logging vehicle.

The vehicle, a $35,000 skidder, ended up in a strip pond, authorities said.

John A. Snyder, 56, of Cherry Valley also is accused of threatening to shoot one of the victims and damaging other tree-cutting property. No injuries were reported.

District Judge Bill O'Donnell arraigned Snyder on felony charges of robbery, robbery of a vehicle, theft, terroristic threats and criminal mischief.

Additionally, he is charged with misdemeanor counts of defiant trespass and disorderly conduct, and a summary count of harassment.

He was placed in the Butler County Prison and later released after posting $50,000 bail.

But he was arrested and jailed again Tuesday when he showed up on the property after being barred from it, authorities said.

Troopers were called to Dean Road in Venango Township just after noon Monday and spoke to the victims, who were working for a Crawford County tree-cutting business, police said.

One of the loggers recounted that he was on a John Deere skidder when Snyder jumped onto the vehicle and “forcibly pulled him off by the front of his shirt,” according to charging documents.

The suspect allegedly took the keys to the skidder from the victim's hands. Snyder also is accused of threatening to blow the other man's head off.

Police said the victim described seeing something in the defendant's waistband that looked like a gun. The victim said he was in fear for his life and ran away through the woods.

Troopers later found the skidder in a strip pond on the property. Police said they do not believe Snyder drove the vehicle into the pond.

Rather, at some point, they suspect he got off the skidder, and it traveled into the pond, possibly after he left it — mistakenly or intentionally — in gear.

The skidder was partially submerged in the pond. In the vehicle, police said, was a chain saw, hammer and five choke chains.

Snyder also allegedly vandalized the other logger's truck, “keying” the driver's side door and dumping a five-gallon bucket of oil on the hood.

The defendant told police, documents said, that the loggers were on his property, and they had given him the key to the skidder, which he drove into the woods.

Police said they eventually took Snyder into custody. While in the back of a cruiser, according to documents, he remarked that “he should have shot the (victims) when he had the chance.”

Following his release from prison, he appeared at the property around noon Tuesday, police said. Troopers were notified and again arrested him.

O'Donnell arraigned him on a felony charge of retaliation against a witness or victim and misdemeanor charges of stalking and criminal trespass. He also is charged with summary counts of harassment and driving with a suspended license.

Snyder was placed in the county prison on $50,000 bond following arraignment. His preliminary hearings in both cases are scheduled for Oct. 6 at the office of District Judge Lewis Stoughton in Chicora. Online court records did not list an attorney for him, and he could not be reached for comment.