HT News

November 19, 2009

Commonwealth, defense rest in home invasion trial

WILKES-BARRE -- Prosecutors called the last of their witnesses, including a DNA forensic analyst who testified blood found in the Jeep Grand Cherokee owned by Anthony Cangiano was consistent with that of Martha and Nicholas Caputo, who were brutally beaten in a home invasion in Hazleton last November.

Deputy District Attorney David Pedri and Assistant District Attorney Albert Yacoub also called Hazleton police detective Gino Fedullo to the stand, as well as a state police corporal who testified he found blood in Cangiano's vehicle.

Prosecutors completed calling witnesses, and attorneys for Daniel Pinkney and Kevin Fisher called Fedullo back to the stand on their clients behalf.

Pinkney and Fisher are accused of attacking the prominent Hazleton couple in their Pine Street home on Nov. 15, 2008. Police say the home invasion was a smash-and-grab plan that went bad when Martha Caputo was lying in the couch in the living room when the two entered the home. Prosecutors say the men only expected Nicholas Caputo to be in the home.

The robbery was planned by Cangiano and another man, Joseph Bardi, who recruited Pinkney and Fisher to execute their plan.

Attorneys will present their closing statements early this afternoon before they are instructed on the law by Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Paul Olszewski, Jr., who will then decide if the jury should begin deliberations.

For more on the story, check back at ww.timesleader.com for updates, or read Friday's edition of The Times Leader.

Tweet	Follow @TLnews

This story also appears on the following websites...