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Coal Center man accused of stabbing neighbor to death

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State police have arrested a Coal Center man accused of stabbing and killing his neighbor.

Dylan Dustyn Lesnik, 28, faces charges of criminal homicide, theft and abuse of a corpse.

Southwest Regional police responded to 135 Spring St. Friday at 3:30 p.m. after a 911 call for an unconscious man, Marshall Y. Craig, with head and neck injuries. Officers arrived and then requested state police’s assistance in the investigation.

Craig, 27, was stabbed several times in the head and neck, and his car was not at home, according to charging documents. He was pronounced dead at 5:55 p.m.

According to a release from the Washington County District Attorney’s office, “investigators learned that Dylan Lesnik, another resident of the same apartment building, was wanted in connection with an aggravated assault involving a knife earlier this week.”

Police began searching for Lesnik in connection with the crime, and he was arrested in Trailer Court Road in Luzerne Township, Fayette County. Lesnik was hiding in a truck, and Craig’s missing vehicle was nearby.

Police questioned Lesnik, where he admitted to murdering Craig, according to the criminal complaint filed Saturday morning. He also told police he continued to stab Craig after he died and took his car after the assault.

Lesnik was wanted earlier this week on charges he tried to kill a pregnant woman with a knife in his home.

Cassie King, who was nine weeks pregnant, was recovering in an intensive-care unit in Pittsburgh with a stab wound to her neck and a broken bone in her spinal cord resulting from the assault earlier this week. She told police Lesnik jumped on top of her while she was in bed, and she grabbed a knife to defend herself. He got the knife from her and kept trying to stab her stomach.

Lesnik cut off part of her ear before she began to lose consciousness. She later learned that an artery in her neck was severed, according to court documents.

She also told police that she feared for her life because he kept calling her at the hospital, threatening to kill her. District Judge Joshua Kanalis signed a warrant Wednesday for Lesnik’s arrest.

Now, Lesnik awaits arraignment on his newest charges.

State police and Southwest Regional Police Department continue to investigate and request anyone with information to call 724-929-6262.

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