A former Lowe\u2019s employee who shot his co-worker to death in June 2025 was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder.<\/p>\n
A Lackawanna County jury reached a guilty verdict on the most serious charge against Chris Wasnetsky, according to District Attorney Brian Gallagher. Wasnetsky had been charged with both first- and third-degree murder in the June 2025 shooting death of Jeffrey Moeller.<\/p>\n
The homicide trial wasn\u2019t a whodunit, as is the case with many murder trials.<\/p>\n
Both prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that Chris Wasnetsky shot Jeffrey Moeller in the head early in the morning of June 14 at the home-improvement store on Viewmont Drive in Scranton.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t even a case revolving around a guilty or not-guilty verdict. Again, both sides assumed the jury foreman would read the word \u201cguilty\u201d when they came back with their verdict.<\/p>\n
Instead, it was a trial centered on whether that guilty verdict would apply to first- or third-degree murder \u2014 significant because Wasnetsky would avoid a mandatory life sentence behind bars or the death penalty if found guilty of third-degree murder rather than first-degree, facing instead a maximum prison term of up to 40 years with the possibility of release.<\/p>\n
Both defense attorney Joseph McGraw and Chief Deputy District Attorney Sara Varela were passionate during their closing arguments as they made their final cases to the jury Thursday.<\/p>\n
McGraw promised in his opening statement that testimony would help jurors understand Wasnetsky\u2019s state of mind in the days leading up to the shooting.<\/p>\n
Afflicted with a disease called ataxia, Wasnetsky was trying to hold on to a shred of dignity. He couldn\u2019t drive in the daytime, had trouble walking and was afraid of falling, McGraw told jurors.<\/p>\n
Still, he persisted. He went to work every day with his lunch pail and a thermos, trying to do his best work.<\/p>\n
When Moeller started harassing him, his whole world was shaken.<\/p>\n
McGraw presented jurors with multiple emails dating from May 2024 to weeks before the shooting, when Wasnetsky begged for help.<\/p>\n
This followed nearly a decade of \u201cnever saying boo\u201d to his managers or co-workers, he said.<\/p>\n
McGraw said Moeller had admitted to minimizing computer screens and leaving a mean-spirited note on work equipment for Wasnetsky to find.<\/p>\n
He asked that jurors find his client guilty of third-degree murder, a lesser charge reflecting the challenges he faced from Moeller.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone has a breaking point,\u201d McGraw told jurors.<\/p>\n
Planned and premeditated<\/p>\n
Varela took a different view of Wasnetsky\u2019s actions and asked jurors to find him guilty of first- rather than third-degree murder.<\/p>\n
She argued that Wasnetsky, who had purchased the gun weeks before and taken it to work several times, had specific intent to kill Moeller and that the death was premeditated.<\/p>\n
She pointed out that, during a police interview following Moeller\u2019s death, Wasnetsky admitted to \u201ckilling Jeff,\u201d but said he didn\u2019t know his last name.<\/p>\n
During that interview, Wasnetsky said he hadn\u2019t talked to Moeller for months.<\/p>\n
Wasnetsky told police Moeller had taken time off before he was killed, and he hadn\u2019t seen him for several days at a time.<\/p>\n
Varela pointed out that this would have provided a cooling-off period, even if he had planned to shoot Moeller.<\/p>\n
In spite of being told by management not to enter Moeller\u2019s work area, Wasnetsky made his way there and shot him, not once but four times.<\/p>\n
The fourth shot was the \u201ckill shot,\u201d Varela said, prior to which Moeller asked Wasnetsky to help him.<\/p>\n
Wasnetsky then sent a previously drafted email to Lowe\u2019s saying \u201cyou could have prevented this,\u201d before calling 911 12 minutes later.<\/p>\n
Varela asked the jury to find Wasnetsky guilty of first-degree murder.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s time for justice for Jeffrey Moeller,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Following the verdict, Gallagher said there was a measure of justice for the Moeller family.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are happy with a positive result, but something like this should never happen. Our sole focus throughout this investigation was obtaining justice for Jeff Moeller, his wife and three young daughters,\u201d he said. \u201cNo verdict can bring Jeff home, but we hope today\u2019s conviction provides his family with some measure of justice and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Lowe\u2019s employee who shot his co-worker to death in June 2025 was convicted Thursday of first-degree…\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-265059","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\/265059","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=265059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265059\/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=265059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}