A former Laflin resident who admitted shooting up a neighbor\u2019s home with a high-powered rifle was sentenced Tuesday to serve up to two years in jail but was granted immediate parole to serve out his time on house arrest.<\/p>\n
Robert J. Nasternak, 73, previously pleaded guilty to a felony charge of shooting into an occupied structure and a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment.<\/p>\n
Luzerne County Judge Joseph F. Sklarosky Jr. imposed the sentence of one to two years at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility followed by five years of probation. Because Nasternak had already served his minimum sentence, the judge granted him immediate parole and ordered him to serve the balance on house arrest with electronic monitoring.<\/p>\n
In imposing the sentence, Sklarosky noted that Nasternak suffers from mental health issues \u2014 his attorney said he has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.<\/p>\n
\u201cRarely is there such a clear connection between a mental health condition being not treated and an incident such as this,\u201d Sklarosky said.<\/p>\n
According to prosecutors, Nasternak opened fire on his neighbors\u2019 property at 69 Laflin Road on the morning of June 16, 2025. Gunshots hit the victims\u2019 house as well as a Toyota SUV.<\/p>\n
Nasternak later admitted shooting up the home with a .308-caliber rifle after having a dream that his neighbors, with whom he had issues in the past, wanted to hurt him, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n
In court Tuesday, Nasternak offered a brief apology for his conduct.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very sorry this happened,\u201d he said. \u201cNothing like this will ever happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attorney Justin Richards, whose firm Elliott, Greenleaf & Dean represents the victim, said the apology \u201crings hollow\u201d for the 87-year-old woman who was traumatized by the experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was something that was wholly traumatic,\u201d Richards said. \u201cIt was egregious conduct and it has put (the victim) in a world of suffering since that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defense attorney Frank Nocito said Nasternak is remorseful for his conduct and has been getting mental health treatment and has been medicated for schizoaffective disorder since the episode.<\/p>\n
Although Nasternak had a similar incident when he fired a gunshot at his aunt\u2019s house in the 1980s, he had gone for about 35 years with a repeat occurrence while medicated, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he stayed on his meds, your honor, he was stable,\u201d Nocito told the court, describing Nasternak as being delusional during the shooting. \u201cHe was basically unmedicated after decades of stability.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that Nasternak now resides at the Above & Beyond Senior Living assisted living facility in Allentown and \u201cwill not be returning\u201d to Laflin. Nocito requested a probationary sentence.<\/p>\n
Assistant District Attorney Anthony Cardone agreed that the case was unique due to Nasternak\u2019s mental health issues but said he thought incarceration was warranted due to the seriousness of the crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were five shots fired,\u201d Cardone said. \u201cIt was one of the most traumatic mornings of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to imposing the sentence, Sklarosky called the situation \u201ca very difficult case\u201d due to Nasternak\u2019s mental health concerns. As part of Nasternak\u2019s sentence, the judge ordered him not to have any contact with the victim.<\/p>\n
Nasternak be allowed to serve his probation at his current residence in Lehigh County, the judge said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Laflin resident who admitted shooting up a neighbor\u2019s home with a high-powered rifle was sentenced Tuesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[46,58230,182,803,139,28,178,180,179,802],"class_list":["post-159679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-courts","tag-laflin","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-cvc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}