SCRANTON, Pa. — Justin Schuback was flat broke and in dire need of drugs when he brutally killed a Lackawanna County restaurant owner in a robbery gone awry seven years ago, District Attorney Mark Powell told a jury Monday.
The case, however, has holes and jurors should question if others really may be to blame, Schuback’s attorney, Bernie Brown, said.
The panel in front of the two lawyers closely listened.
The first day of Schuback’s trial for the January 2017 murder of Old Forge restauranter Robert Baron started Monday with jury selection. It ended with opening statements that previewed the cases both sides intend to make.
Schuback, 38, is on trial for first-, second- and third-degree murder, robbery and burglary. If convicted, he could potentially be sentenced to life behind bars.
Powell said the jury should expect to hear testimony that places Schuback’s cellphone at Baron’s restaurant, Ghigiarelli’s, at the time Baron was attacked and at Pagnotti Park, where authorities found him in March 2023, six years later.
They also will hear from one of Schuback’s former cellmates, who is expected to testify that Schuback confessed to him that he killed Baron by striking him with a metal object.
Schuback reportedly disclosed he planned to burglarize the restaurant and steal from Baron. He did not realize that Baron planned to sleep in an apartment above the restaurant that night so he could collect a delivery of pizza dough the next morning.
“A horrific, violent confrontation” followed, Powell said. Baron fell dead.
After, Schuback wrapped Baron’s body in a sheet disposed of the remains in a field outside a park, he told his cellmate. He cleaned the restaurant as best he could and burned evidence.
Brown, meanwhile, told the jury there is much to doubt in Powell’s case. The case does not explain how Schuback, a 165 pound “dope sick” addict, managed to break in, fight a man to the death, dispose of the body and clean up the scene by himself in the span of two hours, Brown said.
It also does not explain how Schuback somehow managed to do that and not get any blood on his clothing, he continued.
Finally, Brown posited that others may have been involved. Other people knew Baron kept $50,000 in the restaurant and others suddenly came into money shortly after Baron vanished.
“When you find Justin Schuback not guilty you can move this case forward,” Brown told the jury.
Powell told the jury they may question whether Schuback acted alone, but what they have to decide is straightforward — did a murder occur and did Schuback do it?
The trial resumes Tuesday as testimony in the case begins.
Among the witnesses, prosecutors expect to call the police officer who initially investigated and a state trooper who processed the restaurant for evidence.
The case could last two weeks.