BLAKESLEE -- Just two days after a man's body was found in a shallow grave in Carbon County, state police in Monroe County have made an arrest.
Michael Rhubart, 28, was charged with homicide late Wednesday night in an investigation that spans three counties.
Rhubart, of Effort, spit at reporters as he was taken away from the state police barracks in Blakeslee.
He is now charged with criminal homicide for the death of Jubar Hughes, 33, of Newark, New Jersey.
Cell phone video obtained by Newswatch 16 shows the tense police activity as troopers swarmed a home in Nanticoke, where they finally tracked Rhubart down.
Neighbor Bernie Johns said the area was covered with police.
“Lots, the whole street was just marked and unmarked cars,” said Johns.
“All of a sudden we heard sirens and the officers told us all to get in the house and they said they were looking for a Michael Rhubart,” said neighbor Jonah Hartman.
State police said Hughes's body was found in Carbon County on Monday in a shallow grave near Lake Harmony.
Through the investigation, detectives learned Hughes had been staying at Rhubart's Monroe County home in Chestnuthill Township.
Newswatch 16 was there as a state police forensics unit carried numerous items from the home, after serving a search warrant.
After taking Rhubart into custody, detectives said he admitted shooting and killing Hughes inside his home in Chestnuthill Township.
Neighbors in Nanticoke said it's unsettling to hear an accused murder suspect was just yards from their homes.
“We've been here since 1972, in this house, and the last few years the area's sort of deteriorated,” said Johns.
“You can't trust nobody, that's the way I look at it,” said Hartman. “I don't trust nobody. I don't allow anybody like that around my kids.”
Rhubart was denied bail and is now at the Monroe County prison.He has a preliminary hearing set for next month.