{"id":159875,"date":"2026-04-07T22:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/159875\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T22:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:16:15","slug":"pa-supreme-court-declines-to-hear-convicted-killer-schubacks-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/159875\/","title":{"rendered":"Pa. Supreme Court declines to hear convicted killer Schuback’s appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The state Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal by Justin Schuback, who is serving a life sentence for killing\u00a0Old Forge pizzeria owner Robert Baron Sr.<\/p>\n

Schuback had appealed a state Superior Court\u2019s October decision, which upheld his first-degree murder conviction and life sentence. In a brief order dated Monday, the Supreme Court denied Schuback\u2019s petition without explanation.<\/p>\n

Baron, 58, was the owner of Ghigiarelli\u2019s Restaurant, 511 S. Main St. He went missing Jan. 26, 2017, and was presumed dead.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A member of the Lackawanna County SWAT team takes Justin Schuback into custody on Foundry Street in Old Forge on March 31, 2023. (TIMES-TRIBUNE \/ FILE PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n

\"Members<\/p>\n

Members of the Scranton Police Special Operations Group and Lackawanna County SWAT approach the front door of a home at 3 Foundry Street in Old Forge as they serve an arrest warrant for Justin Schuback on March 31, 2023. (TIMES-TRIBUNE \/ FILE PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 2<\/p>\n

A member of the Lackawanna County SWAT team takes Justin Schuback into custody on Foundry Street in Old Forge on March 31, 2023. (TIMES-TRIBUNE \/ FILE PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n

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His disappearance sparked a yearslong investigation and family crusade for justice that culminated in the discovery of Baron\u2019s remains and the conviction of Schuback for the murder that occurred during a botched robbery.<\/p>\n

Schuback was arrested March 31, 2023, after a search discovered Baron\u2019s remains near Pagnotti Park. Until that breakthrough, the crime had gone unsolved for over six years. Authorities cracked the case with cellphone range-to-tower data that showed Schuback\u2019s phone at key locations and times Jan. 25-26, 2017.<\/p>\n

At trial in Lackawanna County Court in May 2024, prosecutors contended Schuback went to Ghigiarelli\u2019s to steal money but didn\u2019t know Baron, who lived upstairs, was at the pizzeria. The two ended up in a deadly altercation.<\/p>\n

A jury found Schuback, now 39, guilty. In July 2024, he received an automatic sentence of life in prison on the first-degree murder charge, as well as 7\u00bd to 15 years behind bars for robbery and burglary.<\/p>\n

Schuback\u2019s appeal raised four issues: Judge Terrence Nealon\u2019s precluding of evidence of polygraphs taken by prosecution witnesses; the judge\u2019s decision to allow a jailhouse informant to testify regarding admissions Schuback made to the informant; the judge\u2019s instructions given to the jury on accomplice liability relating to a second-degree felony murder charge and whether the weight of the evidence supported the conviction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jury, as fact-finder, while passing on the credibility of the witnesses and weight of the evidence, was free to believe all, part, or none of the evidence,\u201d the Superior Court ruling said in affirming Nealon\u2019s judgment of sentencing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The state Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal by Justin Schuback, who is serving a life…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[46,202,201,182,139,16790,28,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-159875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-courts","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-old-forge","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159875","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=159875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}