Federal judge unswayed by Unity man's gun possession claim, sentences him to federal prison

A Unity man was sentenced Wednesday to seven years and three months in federal prison in a gun case, and the judge rejected claims that the defendant was unaware he was prohibited from having the weapons because of past felony convictions.

“(Thomas G. Stanko) acted consistently with somebody who knew he wasn’t supposed to have guns,” Chief U.S. District Judge Mark R. Hornak said.

Stanko, 51, also was ordered to serve three years on supervised release after the prison term.

He was indicted in December 2018 and has been held in jail since April of that year on unrelated state cases. Stanko has long been suspected in the 2018 disappearance of Cassandra Gross of Unity though he is not charged in connection with it.

He pleaded guilty in November in the federal case to two counts of illegally having guns as a convicted felon. The federal charges stem from 17 guns state police said they found in August 2018 on a Unity property and a storage unit he rented.

Stanko said during Wednesday’s hearing that the firearms belonged to his father and that they were removed from his parents’ Unity home and put into storage and forgotten about.

Hornak wasn’t buying it.

“That argument does not persuade the court,” the judge said.

Hornak previously ordered the guns to be forfeited. The cache included revolvers, pistols, rifles and a shotgun.

Stanko and his attorney, Komron Jon Maknoon, argued for a lighter sentence, both pointing toward a traumatic childhood and alcohol abuse as an adult.

“There’s no reason that he can’t be a productive member of society because the one thing that Thomas Stanko is, he’s an extremely hard worker,” Maknoon said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti argued that authorities were led to the firearms through jailhouse phone calls Stanko made to his mother and a girlfriend during which Stanko used “coded language” about the weapons.

State police found four guns at the White Fence Lane home where his mother lives and 13 more at a Greensburg storage unit. Rivetti acknowledged the seriousness of the trauma Stanko has experienced, but said Stanko’s involvement with the criminal justice system has spanned decades.

“He has perpetuated trauma and violence against others,” Rivetti said.

Stanko’s mother, Almira Stanko, 85, testified that she relied on her son to help with cutting grass and other work around the house.

“I really need my son home,” she said. “I need him home to help me.”

Gross, of Unity, was last seen April 7, 2018. She was reported missing two days later. The next day, state police found her Mitsubishi Outlander burned in a wooded area near Twin Lakes Park.

In the days after her disappearance, state police were seen searching two Unity properties Stanko owned at the time.

He has denied any involvement.

A judge in 2019 declared Gross legally dead. State police classify the case as a homicide. No arrests have been made. She would be 56.

Prosecutors have said solving the case is a top priority.

Stanko is awaiting Sept. 27 preliminary hearings in three cases filed in December 2018 and April 2019 in Westmoreland County.

In those cases, he is accused of asking a woman falsify a receipt for an ATV purchase, instructing his mother to use his government benefits account while he is jailed and asking a woman to run a power cord from his storage unit to nearby Westmoreland County Housing Authority property to charge the battery in a vehicle.

Those hearings have been repeatedly continued while Stanko was in federal custody. He has not posted bail in any of the three.