In a key ruling Tuesday, a Westmoreland County judge decided that jurors in the Thomas G. Stanko criminal homicide trial may hear limited evidence that his former girlfriend, Cassandra Gross, was legally declared dead in 2019.
Following a hearing, Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Stewart II ruled details of the legal finding issued about nine months after Gross, 51, of Unity, was reported missing can be presented through witness testimony.
Prosecutors contend Gross was killed by Stanko, 55, who is her former boyfriend, and that her remains were likely incinerated and disposed of shortly after she disappeared in early April 2018. Her remains have never been found.
Stanko, of Unity, was charged in 2022 with first-degree murder and reckless burning in connection with her death. The defense has maintained the prosecution’s case is built on a faulty premise and claimed it cannot be proven that Gross is dead.
Opening statements and testimony are slated to begin Wednesday morning in what is expected to be a two-week trial.
Gross was reported missing by her parents on April 9, 2018 — the same day her blind and diabetic dog, Baxter, was found alone and covered in mud in the Beatty Crossroads area. The next day, her burned car, a red 2016 Mitsubishi Outlander, was spotted by Norfolk Southern employees in a wooded area along train tracks near Twin Lakes Park.
Defense attorney Marc Daffner sought to exclude from evidence at Stanko’s murder trial the court order signed in January 2019 by Judge Chris Scherer that legally declared Gross to be deceased.
“I don’t know if that has anything to do with Mr. Stanko. I can’t imagine anything more prejudicial,” Daffner argued.
Prosecutors conceded the text from the court order declaring Gross as a homicide victim and transcripts from a partially closed-door hearing that led to the legal finding included some potentially inadmissible evidence. But they also argued that evidence of the death declaration was necessary for jurors to understand the context surrounding testimony from other witnesses.
At that hearing, Gross’ parents and son testified they had been in daily contact with her until her disappearance. Her mother and son are both listed as potential prosecution witnesses during the trial.
Stewart said jurors can be told that the declaration of death was a civil ruling that allowed family members to resolve her estate, seek insurance payments and close out her retirement fund and bank accounts.
“Witnesses can testify that they had to go before a court to say she is deceased and leave it at that,” Stewart ruled.
The judge, as part of a series of additional evidentiary rulings Tuesday, said prosecutors cannot tell jurors about other criminal cases Stanko faced and was convicted of before he was charged with Gross’ murder.
Assistant District Attorney Jim Lazar said the prosecution intends to explain to jurors why it took eight years after Gross’ disappearance to bring Stanko to trial.
The judge ruled prosecutors cannot introduce evidence that Stanko was charged and convicted with federal weapons offenses and was implicated in other state crimes that included illegal firearm possession, assault and other unrelated violations of the law.
Jurors can hear evidence that Stanko appeared to discard evidence when he was confronted by police with an arrest warrant for another unnamed offense in 2018, but details of other criminal cases are inadmissible, he ruled.