Fayette County murder featured on cable show “Snapped”
The story of a Fayette County woman convicted of third-degree murder will be featured today on an episode of the Oxygen channel’s true crime series “Snapped.”
Several people involved in the case of 46-year-old Catherine Hamborsky spoke about the circumstances of the killing of Thomas Lesniak, whose body was found in the charred debris of JJ’s Bar in Upper Tyrone Township on Jan. 4, 2005.
Attorney Jason Adams, who was a deputy prosecutor at the time, is among those appearing in the episode. He said that while he was not involved in the trial, he did handle Hamborsky’s preliminary hearing and some subsequent proceedings.
Adams said the Hamborsky case may have been chosen by the producers of “Snapped” because of the nature of her defense, which was that she was afraid she was about to be sexually assaulted by Lesniak.
According to the promotional spot advertising the episode, Hamborsky may have snapped because Lesniak, the bartender, refused to extend her bar tab so she could continue to gamble on the bar’s video poker machines.
However, attorney Samuel J. Davis, who represented Hamborsky at trial and appears in the episode, said, “Certainly that wasn’t our take.”
Davis disagreed that Hamborsky snapped, calling it justifiable homicide instead.
“From her testimony, from her point of view, she states he made unwanted advances,” Davis said. Hamborsky claimed Lesniak offered to exchange money for the poker machines for sex, and that she stabbed and shot him out of fear for her safety, Davis said.
The episode airs at 9 p.m. today.