KY murder-suicide suspect avoided jail time last month in domestic violence case
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Police found a Winchester couple dead; investigators say Snowden shot Brantley.
- Snowden avoided prison via pretrial diversion after a 2025 plea for assault.
- Brantley sought an emergency protective order; contact ban preceded slaying.
A man accused of shooting and killing a woman before killing himself Oct. 17 in Winchester avoided jail time last month in a separate domestic violence case, according to court records.
One day before the shooting, the man was ordered to stay away from the woman he killed for three years. They had been in a relationship, Winchester Police Chief Travis Thompson said, but she had obtained a domestic violence restraining order against him.
Ava Brantley, 35, and Tyler Snowden, 38, were found dead in Brantley’s home. Police said Snowden shot out the back window of Brantley’s home, broke in and shot Brantley, and before killing himself.
Police think the shooting happened around 5 a.m. Oct. 17, but the bodies were not found until that evening, when Brantley’s mother called police after she was unable to contact her all day. A Ring camera from a neighboring duplex captured the sound of a gunshot that morning, and no one else was in the home at the time, police said.
Brantley filed for a restraining order Oct. 9. Court documents say Snowden had a history of being violent with her and had previously pointed a gun at her head, keyed her car, broke her TV and knocked a security camera off her home.
The day before Brantley filed for the order, she and Snowden got into a fight, and Snowden allegedly told her “this will be a long road in hell for you,” court documents say. Brantley feared for her life because of Snowden’s prior history of domestic violence.
At the time of the shooting, Snowden was on probation in the other case for a hitting a previous girlfriend with his truck last year, court records show.
Snowden’s domestic violence history
Snowden was charged in February 2024 with second-degree assault — domestic violence and first-degree wanton endangerment in the previous case, according to court documents.
In May 2025, he accepted a plea deal that amended his second-degree assault charge, a class C felony, to assault under extreme emotional disturbance, a class D felony.
Snowden also pleaded guilty to first-degree wanton endangerment, another class D felony. Class D felonies in Kentucky carry a prison sentence between one and five years.
However, Snowden avoided being sent to prison after he was granted pretrial diversion, a program that gives certain defendants the chance to have their case dismissed.
Pretrial diversion, a program that was signed into law in 1998 by the Kentucky legislature and approved by the Kentucky Supreme Court a year later, postpones prison sentences for qualified defendants who plead guilty to class D felonies and places them on probation.
Defendants on diversion must obey all the orders of their probation during the diversion period, and if they complete the program, the charges are dismissed.
Snowden began pretrial diversion Sept. 26, according to court records. He was ordered to undergo substance abuse and mental health evaluations, participate in anger management counseling and not to violently or unlawfully contact the victim.
If Snowden violated his diversion, he faced seven years in prison, according to court records. His diversion was supposed to last until September 2027.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
This story was originally published October 21, 2025 at 3:38 PM.
