An attorney for convicted killer Neil Pal argued Wednesday that Judge Terrence Nealon erred in not moving his client’s trial for the 2013 murder of Frank Bonacci out of Lackawanna County.
During a 90-minute post-trial hearing before Judge Nealon, William Costopoulos maintained Mr. Pal should have been granted a change of venue based on sensational and inflammatory pretrial publicity in both the traditional and social media.
A jury in June convicted Mr. Pal, 24, of Scranton, of first-degree murder as an accomplice and conspiracy in aiding triggerman Jason Dominick in the execution-style slaying of Mr. Bonacci. He received a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment, plus 20 to 40 years.
At a separate trial in May, a different jury found Mr. Dominick, also 24, of Scranton, guilty of third-degree murder. He was sentenced to 40 to 80 years in prison.
Investigators said Mr. Dominick shot Mr. Bonacci, 24, of Dunmore, in the back of the head in July 2013 as Mr. Pal drove the victim’s vehicle to an isolated area off Ridge Row after an all-night drinking party. The men forced the vehicle into a ravine, where it was found a week later with Mr. Bonacci’s body inside.
Read the full version of this story in Thursday's edition of The Times-Tribune