Westmoreland County prosecutors on Wednesday issued a stern rebuke of claims made by the lawyer of a Unity man charged with killing his former girlfriend.
Prosecutors said the lawyer for Thomas Stanko in court documents filed last month falsely claimed it was accepted as fact that no evidence supports claims that the alleged victim is dead.
A ruling is expected soon in a defense effort seeking to terminate the murder case against Stanko, and also bar evidence of alleged prior violence toward the alleged victim Cassandra Gross, and other women.
Gross was declared dead by a county judge in 2019, months after the Unity resident was reported by family members as missing. Efforts to find her remains have been ongoing since she was last seen on April 7, 2018. The 52-year-old woman’s burned-out vehicle was discovered days later near Twin Lakes Park, a short distance from where her diabetic dog was found unattended by a motorist
Searches have since found physical evidence, including pieces of Gross’ charred clothing and her eyeglasses, in a burn barrel on Stanko’s property, according to prosecutors.
Stanko, 53, was charged with criminal homicide and other offenses in 2022 in connection with Gross’ death.
Defense attorney Marc Daffner claimed in his most recent court filing that the defense and prosecutors agreed that it has yet to be established that Gross is “no longer alive nor has it been proven that the defendant had anything at all to do with any homicide.”
Prosecutors on Wednesday accused Daffner of intentionally attempting to mislead Judge Michael Stewart, who was reassigned the case last month. They claimed the defense argument was a “deliberate falsehood and manifestly absurd.”
“The commonwealth hereby unequivocally expresses the position we believed was evident from the day this case was charged: The defendant killed Cassandra Gross and concealed her body and destroyed her belongings and vehicle with fire,” wrote Assistant District Attorneys Jim Lazar and Katie Ranker.
Prosecutors have conceded the case against Stanko is based largely on circumstantial evidence.
That evidence, according to court records, includes a handwritten note prosecutors said Stanko wrote to Gross in 2017 in which he promised not to beat or abuse her. Four months before her disappearance, Gross appeared at the Latrobe police station, claiming she feared Stanko, according to police.
Prosecutors, in court documents, also revealed evidence from two former spouses who claimed Stanko threatened their lives.
Stanko is in jail without bond as he serves a seven-year federal prison sentence for gun offenses related to weapons found on his property during ongoing searches in connection with Gross’ disappearance.
His murder trial has not been scheduled.