Dismissal of Unity man's criminal cases upheld by state appeals court

The dismissal of three criminal cases against a Unity man named as a suspect in his former girlfriend’s disappearance has been upheld by a state appeals court.

A three-judge panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the ruling issued last year by Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Tim Krieger, who found there was misconduct through inaction by district attorney’s office during its prosecution of Thomas G. Stanko.

Stanko, 51, claimed his prosecution on charges from the district attorney’s office was intentionally delayed for leverage to seek a confession for his suspected role in the 2018 disappearance of Cassandra Gross.

He has denied any involvement in or knowledge of Gross’ disappearance.

District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli, who took over as the county’s top prosecutor in January, said her office will not appeal the Superior Court’s ruling.

“This ruling does not alter or affect the ongoing investigation into the murder of Cassandra Gross,” Ziccarelli said.

Gross, of Unity, was last seen April 7, 2018 and was reported missing two days later. On April 10, state police found her Mitsubishi Outlander burned in a wooded area near Twin Lakes Park. She was declared dead in 2019 by a county judge.

Police have classified Gross’ case as a homicide although her remains have never been found.

Stanko was jailed in late April 2018 after county prosecutors charged him in three separate cases in which he was accused of possessing a stolen all-terrain sports vehicle, violating terms of a drunken-driving sentence in 2018 and assaulting a man during a Youngstown bar fight in 2017.

In February 2019, Stanko was charged and detained by federal authorities with the illegal possession of 17 weapons found during a search of his property.

Local prosecutors insisted they were stymied by the federal government, which refused to transfer Stanko back to the county to answer those charges.

In his ruling last summer to dismiss the local charges, Krieger found that county prosecutors intentionally violated Stanko’s rights to a speedy trial and abused and misused their power. Superior Court judges affirmed Krieger’s findings.

“The Commonwealth’s rather flimsy pretext for its consistent inaction supports the trial court’s conclusion that the Commonwealth failed to prove its due diligence during Stanko’s time in federal custody,” according to the appeals court ruling.

Stanko last November pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts illegal possession of weapons by a convicted felon. He remains in federal custody and is awaiting a sentencing hearing that has not been scheduled.