SCRANTON, Pa. — The Lackawanna County man accused of killing Old Forge restaurateur Robert Baron seven years ago reportedly told a cellmate he used a “metal object” when he “racked” him, defense attorneys wrote in a motion to keep that statement out of evidence.
Justin Schuback’s attorneys want Judge Terrence Nealon to keep comments made to his cellmate last year away from the jury set to decide his fate next month on charges including first-, second-, and third-degree murder.
Nealon should grant Schuback’s request because the statements could violate the accused man’s rights, argued his defense attorney, Bernard Brown.
Schuback reportedly made the statement while he and his cellmate consumed the drug suboxone, which managed to make its way into the unit they were housed in together, the motion states.
Schuback’s alleged statement was passed on to the county detectives in July. Prosecutors in turn gave the information to Schuback’s defense as part of the discovery process, according to the motion.
Brown called the statement his client reportedly made “drug induced.”
“Second, serious policy considerations are implicated where the government can benefit from blatantly illegal acts,” Brown wrote in a pretrial motion. “Third, serious policy considerations are implicated where an inmate, whether acting at the direction of the government or not, may believe they can gain favor with those prosecuting their case by drugging other inmates…to garner a confession in a high-profile case.”
Asked for comment, District Attorney Mark Powell said in a message that, “the issue is currently pending before the judge and therefore I cannot comment.”
Nealon has not yet made a ruling.
Jury selection is scheduled to start May 6.
Before the first juror is picked, Nealon is tasked with deciding issues raised by the defense and prosecution about what can be presented at trial.
That includes the question of what to do about a claim Schuback made a jailhouse confession.
“It started between us, ya know…just don’t want to get in trouble at the county,” Schuback’s then-cellmate said during an interview with Detective Chris Kolcharno, according to Brown’s motion. “Some suboxone came in the unit and, um, I had got a few of them and, um, he did it…that right there made him start talkin’ and talkin’…”
County detectives arrested Schuback in March 2023 following the discovery of Baron’s remains near Pagnotti Park in Old Forge.
Baron, 58, disappeared late in January 2017 and was last thought to be at his restaurant, Ghigiarelli's.
Old Forge police secured a search warrant for the restaurant and found spattered blood, broken glass, missing cash and a human tooth in the utility sink.
They also found evidence someone tried to clean up the scene.
Baron himself was nowhere to be found.
For six years, the police and the larger community grappled with the question of what happened. A picture of Baron's smiling face peered from posters and billboards.
Suspicion fell to Schuback, who was a friend of Baron’s son and who knew the restaurateur kept cash on the premises.
Last year, investigators arrested Schuback when cell phone “range to tower” data helped place Schuback’s phone near Ghigiarelli’s the night Baron vanished, and then later at Pagnotti Park, where authorities found his remains.
In an interview with state police and a county detective, Schuback denied he killed Baron and denied he broke into the restaurant, according to court records.
While sitting in jail, however, authorities allege Schuback had a different story for his cellmate.
Twice in July, county detectives interviewed the man incarcerated with Schuback, Brown said in the motion, citing evidence turned over by the prosecution.
Suboxone — a buprenorphine and naloxone cocktail meant to ease opioid withdrawal symptoms — made its way into their unit, and the two prisoners helped themselves, according to the motion.
The narcotic loosened Schuback’s tongue, according to the motion.
“Let’s just say he was under the influ… well not under the ... but it… it made him talk more,” the cellmate said, according to Brown’s motion.
Brown argued Schuback’s cellmate drugged him to interrogate him. As they spoke, he gave Schuback more suboxone, according to the motion. It seemed to make Schuback feel better.
Finally, Schuback said, “I did…I did it,” the cellmate told investigators.
He pressed Schuback for details.
“He’s like, ‘man, I just don’t even wanna talk about that but yeah, I just racked him with the (expletive) metal…metal…metal object…metal object,’” he told investigators.
The cellmate, a 40-year-old man, was jailed for allegedly committing burglary last spring and violating parole on an earlier case.
On July 27, a few days after the incarcerated man first spoke with law enforcement, Robert Saurman, the cellmate’s attorney, petitioned the court to modify a detainer keeping him locked up.
According to the petition, Saurman argued a “resolution has been tentatively reached” that would allow his client to serve a time-served sentence.
The terms of the agreement were not specified in the paperwork.
Saurman’s client left the jail by the end of September. His burglary case is pending in county court.
Saurman did not return messages seeking comment.
