{"id":263543,"date":"2026-08-11T22:40:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T22:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/263543\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T22:40:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T22:40:06","slug":"execution-or-terrible-tragedy-jury-hears-opening-statements-in-first-degree-murder-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/263543\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Execution’ or ‘terrible tragedy?’ Jury hears opening statements in first-degree murder case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christopher Wasnetsky was helped from a wheelchair as he sat in court, accused of murdering his coworker.<\/p>\n

SCRANTON, Pa. \u2014 Over a year since he was accused of shooting down a coworker, Christopher Wasnetsky appeared in a Lackawanna County court in front of Judge Margaret Moyle and a jury of his peers.<\/p>\n

Wasnetsky is charged with first and third-degree murder after shooting and killing Jeffery Moeller in the back of Lowe’s in Scranton in June of 2025.<\/a><\/p>\n

In their opening statements, the prosecution said the defendant “executed” Moeller.<\/p>\n

Chief Deputy District Attorney Sara Varela told jurors Wasnetsky “planned, prepared and premeditated” the killing. And that through the evidence, they would be able to prove Wasnetsky is guilty of first-degree murder.<\/p>\n

The defense painted a different story, one of alleged acts committed by Moeller that led to this “terrible tragedy.”<\/p>\n

Defense Attorney Joseph McGraw detailed Wasnetsky’s struggles with ataxia, a neurological disease that they say impacts Wasnetsky’s movement, speech, and sight.<\/p>\n

While working at Lowe’s, McGraw says Wasnetsky underwent constant mocking from Moeller and other acts that included changing his computer settings and making his work life more difficult.<\/p>\n

After several complaints to management where nothing was done, Wasnetsky made the decision to kill Moeller. That, according to McGraw, would “preserve his last shred of dignity.”<\/p>\n

“Execution” or a “terrible tragedy?” It is up to a jury now to decide.<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to last for most of the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christopher Wasnetsky was helped from a wheelchair as he sat in court, accused of murdering his coworker. SCRANTON,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-263543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263543","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=263543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}