Two shootings, a hit-and-run, a dead child.
Authorities dealt with four homicides in Lackawanna County in 2019, each tragic but half of the death toll they saw in 2018.
One case remained open — a hit-and-run that left a pedestrian dead in Scranton — resulting in a clearance rate of 75%.
“There’s no arrest and we really need the help from the public on that one,” Police Chief Carl Graziano said. “There’s not a lot to go on.”
Michael Miele, 57, of Scranton, died of injuries suffered in a Jan. 3 car crash in the city. Police found him unconscious with a head injury at 7:50 p.m. at Luzerne Street and 10th Avenue. Some pieces of a vehicle were nearby, leading authorities to conclude he had been struck. Whoever hit Miele fled. He died nine days later.
No witnesses have come forward. No useful surveillance footage has surfaced. Investigators have followed up on a few tips, but nothing so far has panned out.
While whoever killed him has, so far, evaded detection, it is unlikely they will evade guilt.
“At some point in your life it’s got to weigh on you,” Graziano said. “At some point you got to come to terms that you need to do the right thing ... this individual had family and they need closure.”
There were three homicides in Lackawanna County in 2017,
though the coroner’s office ruled on two additional cases prosecuted in other counties; 13 in 2016; and nine in 2015.
“We had a couple years where we had none, then we had some,” Coroner Tim Rowland
said. “I think that’s a normal range.”
Of the other three cases in 2019:
An investigation determined that a gunman was justified in opening fire during an early Mother’s Day shooting outside of a Scranton after-hours club. Parker D. Palermo, 20, was shot to death outside the Castle club May 12 but the shooter, Damion Pitters, acted in self-defense. Police filed charges against James Montalvo-Gaston, 21, 805 S. Keyser Ave., who was with Palermo and was seriously wounded, with aggravated assault and several other offenses. Charges are proceeding to trial. Judge Vito Geroulo on Dec. 23 agree to have his competency examined. Police also charged Joseff Conrad Baskerville, 28, 166 S. Grant St., Wilkes-Barre, with a single count of carrying a firearm without a license. He is awaiting a preliminary hearing scheduled in March.
No charges were filed after a murder-suicide in Ransom Twp. in November. State police believe that Robert W. Bowen III, 68, of Clarks Summit, killed his wife, Barbara A. Naumann, 58, of Dunmore, and them himself Nov. 6 into Nov. 7 at 2738 Ransom Road.
Chance Bumbarger, 16 months, died Oct. 29 at a hospital in Danville not long after his mother’s boyfriend admitted to police he beat and strangled the little boy. Christopher Mele, 33, 222. N. Bromley Ave., has been in the Lackawanna County Prison without bail since Oct. 28 on charges of attempted homicide.
Charges against Mele are expected to be amended but there is no timetable, Graziano said.
Luzerne County saw 12 homicides in 2019, down from 15 homicides in 2018.
Wayne County had one homicide last year, down from five in 2018.
One person was shot to death by state police in Pike County last year, though that case remains under investigation. There were no homicides in Pike County in 2017.
There were no homicides in Susquehanna County last year, down from one in 2018. District Attorney Marion O’Malley said that her office filed homicide by motor vehicle charges in 2019 against a man for a 2018 death.
There were no homicides in Wyoming County in 2019, according to the county coroner’s office; however, the body of a woman believed to have been killed in the county in late 2018 was discovered in July in the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County.
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Luzerne County
Todd Martin, 51, Hazleton, died in March from injuries he suffered when Shandell Devone George, 32, entered Lucky Charms bar in Hazleton on Feb. 19 and opened fire. The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force captured George in New York in November. He is awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania on charges of criminal homicide.
Joseph Monka, 71, Edwardsville, was murdered April 15 as part of a conspiracy his granddaughter, Gabriella Elizabeth Long, 17, concocted to rob him of his car and cash, authorities charged. She and co-conspirators Mercedes Lin Hall, 17, Devin Malik Cunningham, 20, and Christopher Brian Cortez, 20, were accused in Monka’s brutal death.
Tarese Previlon, 17, Wilkes-Barre, was stabbed May 6 by Previlon’s great-uncle, Milton Clark, 59, authorities charged. Previlon was treated and released from a local hospital but died from complications from the stabbing.
Jeremy Soto, 25, Wilkes-Barre, died June 4 a few days after a fight with a 19-year-old man. Prosecutors ruled Soto’s death a justifiable homicide.
Tara Grob, 38, West Wyoming, was shot to death by her boyfriend, Joshua Winans Croop, 37, July 25. Croop then shot Grob’s son, Chadwick Grob, before he fled the scene. Croop killed himself as state police sought him.
Terran Jayce Hutcheson, 11 weeks old, Nescopeck, died Sept. 28 at Berwick hospital from injuries suffered when his father squeezed him until his ribs fractured. Jeffrey Hutcheson, 21, is charged with aggravated assault; criminal homicide charges are pending.
Emily Patricia Winburn, 15, of Wilkes-Barre, was shot by a juvenile acquaintance Sept. 21 in Exeter. Winburn’s mother, Jane Maconeghy, has said the shooting was an accident. One person was arrested, but the charges and status of the case are unknown because juvenile proceedings are confidential.
Sandra Jones-Shaffer, 66, of Laflin, was shot by her husband, Robert Shaffer, 65, on Sept. 30. Shaffer then shot himself.
Jordan Patrick Oliver, 20, of Nanticoke, was shot to death by state police in the woods of Hanover Twp. on Dec. 1 following a manhunt. Authorities said he pepper-sprayed police officers, stole a police SUV and kidnapped an officer’s 15-year-old daughter during a confrontation at the Greater Nanticoke Area High School. The Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office ruled the case a justifiable homicide.
Olivia E. Tyler, 5, of Wilkes-Barre, was stabbed to death by her mother, Christina J. Tyler, on Dec. 13 in Bear Creak Twp. Tyler, 31, then stabbed herself and died.
Brittney Reynolds, 26, of Wilkes-Barre, was shot in the back of her head at her Matson Avenue apartment by her boyfriend, Zien N. Council, 18, authorities said. Council is awaiting trial for criminal homicide and theft.
Jose Jimenez, 23, of Hazleton, died Dec. 15 at Lehigh Valley Hospital — Cedar Crest from a stab wound suffered during a domestic dispute at a home in Hazleton. Marlin Batista, 43, faces a count of criminal homicide for the killing.
Wayne County
Ricardo Martinez, 76, died July 30 of multiple traumatic injuries while serving a life sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan. Prison officials found Martinez unresponsive in his cell that evening. Staff and EMS could not save him.
Pike County
Nicholas Joseph Cantelmi, 31, of Jim Thorpe, died Nov. 27 after a seven-hour standoff with police. Authorities allege police tried to pull him over for a parole violation out of Carbon County and he fled to a cabin on Pine Flats Road in Porter Twp. When police tried to enter the cabin to arrest him, Cantelmi showed a gun and officers shot him.