Feb 22, 2019 3 min read

A man found guilty Feb. 7 of a botched execution will be serving prison time for unrelated drug delivery and possession of a firearm without a license.

Keith Rosario, 28, who last lived in Washington, had been placed on probation four years ago in exchange for guilty pleas to counts of intending to traffic marijuana and cocaine.

Deputy District Attorney Jason Walsh asked Washington County Judge John DiSalle to revoke Rosario’s previous probation and send him to prison.

DiSalle on Thursday concurred, revoked Rosario’s probationary sentences and sent him to prison for five to 10 years on the cocaine delivery charge, a felony.

Rosario was charged in 2013 in connection with the sale of 1.7 grams of cocaine to a confidential informant in the parking lot of Jollick Manor, Washington.

On a 2015 charge of possession with intent to deliver marijuana, the judge increased Rosario’s consecutive year of probation to five years. Rosario pleaded guilty to selling 6.7 grams of marijuana in a Washington supermarket parking lot to an informant.

A May 23, 2013, firearm charge stemming from the firing of shots behind Ernie’s Freestyle Restaurant, in Washington’s North Main Street business district, resulted in a 2 ½ to 5-year prison sentence in 2015.

DiSalle ordered Thursday that Rosario be subject to the state board of probation and parole.

Representing Rosario at the revocation was attorney Herbert Terrell.

Earlier this month, a Washington County jury convicted Rosario of attempting to kill Marcus Stancik, 32, on Sept. 5, 2017.

Rosario, accompanied by two other people who testified against him during the trial, was accused of abducting Stancik from Washington’s West End neighborhood and taking him to Cove Road in South Franklin Township.

At the bank of a former reservoir, Stancik was forced to his knees and shot in the base of his skull. When the gun jammed, Stancik fled into the water, and a woman who had heard the gunfire called state police.

Stancik, who survived, told state police the episode arose after he was wrongfully accused of taking a gun. Stancik, who was homeless, had been staying with Richard Dewey Lacks Jr., 25, at his West End home and making cocaine deliveries for him.

Lacks pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit aggravated assault, testified against Rosario at the recent trial, and was sentenced to four to eight years in prison last week by Judge Valarie Costanzo in connection with the crime against Stancik.

Costanzo has scheduled Rosario’s sentencing on attempted homicide, kidnapping and related charges for May.