Trial testimony: Police ruled out suspects in killing of Old Forge pizzeria owner Baron, focused on Schuback
SCRANTON — Investigators ruled out other suspects in the killing of Old Forge pizzeria owner Robert Baron and charged Justin Schuback as the lone culprit based on DNA and cellphone evidence and his lies to investigators, a Pennsylvania State Police officer testified Friday.
Accused of killing Baron at his Ghigiarelli’s Restaurant late on Jan. 25, 2017, Schuback was arrested March 31, 2023. His trial started Monday in Lackawanna County Court and continued daily through Friday.
Prosecutors believe Schuback went to rob Ghigiarelli’s but didn’t know that Baron, who lived upstairs, was at the restaurant and the two ended up in a deadly altercation.
On Friday, Pennsylvania State Police Corporal Gregory Allen testified for the prosecution to the following: police eventually found Baron’s remains near Pagnotti Park in Old Forge; they obtained cellphone evidence placing Schuback’s phone where the killing occurred and then also at the exact location where Baron’s bones were found; Schuback’s DNA was found inside Baron’s car that also had Baron’s bloodstains in it; and Schuback denied ever being in that car.
“He had a motive and he had an opportunity. The evidence we had in 2023 pointed only to Justin Schuback,” Allen testified.
In the start of his testimony Thursday, Allen said he entered the case in June 2022 to try to re-establish contact with the Baron family and gather intelligence to find the body.
Allen and Lackawanna County Detective Sheryl Turner went to Schuback’s home to speak with him. Wearing wires to record Schuback, the officers went to his residence in Old Forge. Audio of this interview was played for the jury Thursday. The two officers purported to want to get Schuback’s take on Baron’s son, Bobby Baron, and his relationship with his parents, but they really wanted to see if Schuback would incriminate himself or confess, Allen testified Thursday.
At that time, Bobby Baron was no longer a suspect and the officers had secured DNA evidence from inside the elder Baron’s car that matched Schuback, Allen testified. The officers asked if Schuback was ever in the car, and he replied, “I was never in it.”
On Friday, defense attorney Bernie Brown questioned Allen about a prior state police investigator’s report from a week after Baron was reported missing that identified Bobby Baron as a person of interest in the case and identified Schuback only as a drug associate of the younger Baron.
Brown’s cross-examination of Allen also elicited the following testimony: An off-duty trooper had told police of seeing two men on the street outside of Ghigiarelli’s and Revello’s restaurant across the street on the night of the incident, but that trooper did not pick Schuback’s photo out of a lineup as one of the two men; Bobby owed another man money for drugs; the Baron family hired a private investigator but fired him when he said Bobby had a drug debt; the family hired a second private investigator who, after meeting with Bobby for a few minutes, advised him to go to the district attorney with a “proffer” of providing information in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
“Knowing all that, and Justin Schuback is still the only suspect?” Brown asked. Allen replied “Yes.”
Lackawanna County Assistant District Attorney Sara Varela asked Allen why the Barons would have hired private investigators.
“They wanted answers. The patriarch of their family was missing. They were desperate for answers,” Allen replied.
Varela asked why Schuback became the lone suspect. Allen testified that all other suspects were cleared through cooperation with investigators, cell phone evidence and alibis.
“They were all excluded, including Bobby Baron Jr.,” Allen testified.
On Wednesday, Bobby Baron testified that he had no involvement in the disappearance and killing of his father.
The trial, with Judge Terrence Nealon presiding and heard by a jury of six women and six men, continues on Monday.
