Christopher Wasnetsky pushed his wheelchair across a Lackawanna County courtroom Tuesday morning and shook as he lowered himself into a seat beside his defense attorney.<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old Scranton man faces first- and third-degree murder charges for the June 14 shooting death of his co-worker, Jeffrey Moeller, 44.<\/p>\n
Because Wasnetsky admitted to shooting Moeller at the Dickson City Lowe\u2019s, jurors must decide his mental state and level of criminal responsibility.<\/p>\n
Chief Deputy District Attorney Sara Varela told jurors Tuesday that Wasnetsky \u201cplanned, prepared and premeditated\u201d the killing.<\/p>\n
She promised evidence showing Wasnetsky bought a 9 mm handgun 17 days before the attack, brought it to the home improvement store, and shot Moeller four times as Moeller stocked lumber shelves.<\/p>\n
Moeller lay bleeding on the floor after three gunshots and pleaded, \u201cHelp me.\u201d Wasnetsky did not, but fired a fourth bullet into his co-worker, Varela said.<\/p>\n
When detectives asked Wasnetsky why he shot Moeller four times, he replied that the first three shots failed to kill him.<\/p>\n
\u2018Everyone has a breaking point\u2019<\/p>\n
Defense attorney Joseph McGraw painted a different picture of the events of that night, describing it as a \u201cterrible tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wasnetsky was struggling with ataxia, a condition that affects his eyesight, coordination, balance and mobility, at the time of the attack. That\u2019s why he\u2019s in a wheelchair.<\/p>\n
A talented runner in high school, the impact of his symptoms meant losing not only the ability to run, but also the friendships and peer support that surrounded the activity.<\/p>\n
Wasnetsky saw much of his life slip away in the last decade, but the one thing he was able to hang on to was his job, McGraw said.<\/p>\n
Using shopping carts for stability, he loaded shelves on the overnight shift.<\/p>\n
About a year ago, Wasnetsky believed Moeller had been mocking him, changing his computer settings, hiding his keys and making his work life more difficult.<\/p>\n
Wasnetsky asked for help, first from management and then from human resources, but none came, McGraw said. His mindset at the time of the killing was simple, to \u201cpreserve his last shred of dignity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone has a breaking point,\u201d McGraw told jurors.<\/p>\n
The trial before Judge Margaret Bisignani Moyle is expect to take about a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christopher Wasnetsky pushed his wheelchair across a Lackawanna County courtroom Tuesday morning and shook as he lowered himself…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[46,202,1099,201,182,139,28,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-263566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-courts","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-dickson-city","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263566","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=263566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}