Former inmate back in jail after BP robbery
A Houston man faces a preliminary hearing next month on charges of robbing a clerk at knifepoint Monday at the BP gasoline station near the Racetrack Road interchange of Interstate 79.
Matthew C. Wisnoski, 20, had been due to report Tuesday to Washington County jail to continue serving a sentence in a separate case, but his arrest by South Strabane Township police hastened his return by several hours.
Wisnoski is being held in the county jail on additional charges of aggravated assault, making terroristic threats, receiving stolen property and possessing instruments of crime.
He was arraigned before District Judge Ethan Ward but will have his preliminary hearing before District Judge Jay Weller, the magistrate for South Strabane Township.
In March 2017, Wisnoski was sentenced by Washington County Judge Gary Gilman to serve two months’ worth of weekends in the county jail after pleading guilty to a simple assault charge filed by Donegal Township police. Warden Edward Strawn said Wisnoski had court permission to serve every other weekend.
Strawn could not be reached Monday after Wisnoski was taken into police custody, but he clarified Wisnoski’s status Wednesday.
In January, Wisnoski failed to appear as scheduled to serve his 48 hours at the jail, but when a bench warrant was requested, it was determined Wisnoski was in a residential rehab facility.
“He did not belong to us (at the time of the robbery),” Strawn said. “He was to come to us the next day. … He was not AWOL.”
“Weekend” sentences are not necessarily served on Saturdays and Sundays.
Police declined to say how much money was turned over during Monday’s robbery, but they said when Wisnoski was apprehended a short time later on railroad tracks near the 2100 block of West Pike Street, he had four kitchen-type knives stashed in different parts of his clothing.