SCRANTON, Pa. — Justin Schuback is still the only suspect in the disappearance and death of Old Forge restaurant owner Robert Baron, a state police investigator testified Friday.
Defense Attorney Bernie Brown, citing reports gathered from the investigation, pressed Cpl. Greg Allen during the fifth day of Schuback's murder trial in Lackawanna County Court that others may have been involved in Baron’s 2017 disappearance and death.
Over and over, Allen's answer was the same: Schuback is the only remaining suspect.
“Just still Justin Schuback?” Brown asked.
“Still Justin Schuback,” Allen answered.
As Schuback's attorney, Brown hopes to raise doubt among the jurors selected to sit in judgment.
Meanwhile, the Lackawanna County district attorney's office tried to throw cold water on the notion others were involved in Baron's disappearance and death seven years ago.
Baron's remains were found last year in the woods behind Pagnotti Park in Old Forge, more than six years after he vanished. Authorities arrested Schuback just days later.
On Monday, trial began in Lackawanna County Court to determine Schuback’s guilty or innocence.
Allen told jurors that Schuback was on drugs, desperate for money and knew Baron's restaurant, Ghigiarelli's in Old Forge, had a lot of cash. According to Allen, Schuback had the motive and the opportunity to commit the crime.
During the last week, jurors heard testimony from Schuback’s girlfriend, his acquaintances and the law enforcement officers tasked with solving the years-old whodunnit.
One of those law enforcement officials was Allen, who came onto the case in 2022 and helped lead it to a conclusion.
As part of his cross-examination of Allen, Brown asked about the location where Baron's remains were found, which is about 400 feet into the woods. Allen later testified that the woods feature a trail used by quad-riders.
If Schuback drove a car on that trail, he would have had to carry Baron's body a far shorter distance.
Prosecutors accused Schuback of attacking Baron shortly after midnight Jan. 26, 2017. After, they claim, Schuback used Baron’s vehicle — a silver Hyundai Elantra — to transport his remains to a patch of woods near the softball fields at Pagnotti Park.
Left there, the years turned Baron’s body to bones.
Once he finished the deed, authorities say Schuback returned home around 3 a.m.
Brown, however, cited a report that a vehicle with “similar” description as Baron’s was spotted by surveillance cameras on Main Street in Old Forge at about 4:30 a.m. — more than an hour after Schuback’s girlfriend testified he returned home that morning.
Allen, under questioning later by Deputy District Attorney Sara Varela, testified that a vehicle passed by “matching the description,” but silver sedans are a fairly common sight on the road.
The Hyundai Baron drove also had tinted windows.
Allen testified that there were other suspects in the case besides Schuback at one point, but they were excluded over the years through alibis, their cell phone location data or by cooperation in the investigation.
The state police corporal also testified data taken from Schuback's cell phone showed Schuback was by Ghigiarelli's the night Baron went missing and also right where investigators found Baron's bones.
"There's no other evidence that points at anybody else other than Justin Schuback," Allen testified.