Co-defendant sentenced after testifying in attempted homicide trial
The attempted homicide trial in Washington County Court resulting in the conviction of Keith Rosario lasted four days.
The co-defendant who testified against Rosario was in and out of court Tuesday in a matter of minutes.
Rosario, 28, awaits sentencing, but the brief hearing before Judge Valarie Costanzo, formalized the four- to eight-year sentence the prosecution negotiated with Richard Dewey Lacks Jr., 25, also of Washington, whose testimony last week helped convict Rosario.
Lacks will be going to prison in exchange for his account about the botched execution of Marcus Stancik, 32, who had no permanent address in September 2017 when he was kidnapped from Washington’s West End after being blamed for a missing gun and proceeds of a cocaine sale.
Stancik was taken to Cove Road in South Franklin Township and shot below the base of his skull. He was able to escape to a reservoir when the gun jammed, and later identified Rosario as the triggerman.
Judge Valarie Costanzo accepted Lacks’ waiver of his right to stand trial; his guilty plea to conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, a second-degree felony; and the commonwealth’s request to dismiss other charges against Lacks, including kidnapping and attempted homicide.
The judge had previously revoked Lacks’ parole on a charge of giving false identification to law enforcement in 2015, for which he was placed on probation for a year. He can serve the sentence concurrently with incarceration.
Under questioning by the judge, Lacks said he was satisfied by his representation by Zachary Mesher, court-appointed conflicts counsel.
The events involving Stancik were not the first time Lacks Jr. had been charged with kidnapping.
According to court records, Lacks was 17 but was charged by South Strabane Township police as an adult in November 2011.
Lacks, then 17, and two other attackers accused a local man of stealing a gun, beat him and forced him into a sport utility vehicle. The victim, who said he had nothing to do with the theft, was not permitted to look up, lest he identify his location. His captors threatened to take him to the countryside and kill him, driving for hours.
Eventually, the victim was dropped off in a rural area, and his assailants took his cellphone, identification and cap. He made his way to a home to ask for help and learned he was in Graysville, Greene County.
Lacks Jr. pleaded guilty in 2012 to kidnapping and was sentenced to one to two years in prison by Judge Katherine B. Emery.