News

Hazleton home invasion trial

By Sheena Delazio sdelazio@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
Sheena Delazio on Facebook   |   @TLSheenaDelazio on Twitter

WILKES-BARRE – Martha and Nicholas Caputo sat just a few feet away from the men they say attacked them in their Hazleton home just over one year ago and listened as a jury foreman read a verdict of guilty for each of the eight counts brought against the attackers.

click image to enlarge

click image to enlarge

Daniel Pinkney, left, photo above left, and Kevin Fisher, right, photo above right, are escorted from the Luzerne County Courthouse after they were found guilty of the assault of a Hazleton couple.

Additional Photos Below

Select images available for purchase in the
Times Leader Photo Store

Daniel Pinkney, 22, of West Hazleton, and Kevin Fisher, 27, of Hazleton, were found guilty of charges including aggravated assault, robbery and burglary in the Nov. 15, 2008, home invasion in which the Caputos were beaten.

“We’re so thankful to everyone who supported us,” Martha Caputo, 76, said after hearing the verdict. “We’re glad it’s over.”

In a four-day trial, the Caputos testified that two masked men barged into their home of more than 50 years. Martha Caputo was lying on a couch, when Pinkney came in, held a shoe box over her face, and hit her with a gun.

She began yelling for her son, Blaise, thinking the attacker would stop if he thought another man was in the home. Nicholas Caputo, 79, heard his wife’s screams from their upstairs bedroom.

Nicholas Caputo walked into the couple’s living room to find a masked man holding a gun to his wife’s head.

That’s when, prosecutors say, Fisher attacked Nicholas Caputo, and struck him three times with brass knuckles.

Prosecutors said Pinkney and Fisher’s intentions were to rob the couple because they own Caputo’s Ice Plant, and were believed to keep a lot of money in their home.

The couple received staples and stitches for their wounds and had to be transported from Hazleton General Hospital to Lehigh Valley Hospital when doctors feared for their lives.

A jury of six men and six women deliberated for more than two hours Friday before delivering the verdict.

Martha Caputo said she and her husband can now have some peace in their lives instead of worrying every day about what happened to them a year ago.

“And now they won’t be able to bother another family,” Nicholas Caputo said.

Deputy District Attorney David Pedri said both Pinkney and Fisher face a maximum of 140 years in prison if they are sentenced consecutively on all eight counts.

The duo, who are both incarcerated, will be sentenced for their crimes Dec. 23 by Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.

Pedri said he and Assistant District Attorney Albert Yacoub intend to seek the maximum sentence.

“We’re pleased with the verdict and looking forward to sentencing,” Pedri said, “There are some crimes that stand out among others. … This is one of those crimes.”

Hazleton City Police Department Detective Gino Fedullo said that thanks to the U.S. Marshals, state police and city police, the case finally came to a close.

Fedullo said he hopes the outcome of this incident eases the minds of elderly Hazleton residents.

Pinkney’s attorney, John Donovan, and Fisher’s attorney, Robert Buttner, declined comment after Friday’s proceedings.

Both Donovan and Buttner argued in their closing statements that descriptions of the men who prosecutors say orchestrated the robbery gone bad, Anthony Cangiano and Joseph Bardi, better fit the description of who Martha Caputo said came into her home.

Donovan and Buttner said Caputo testified the two men were large, and that Cangiano and Bardi fit that description because at the time of the attack they each weighed between 200 and 300 pounds.

Donovan and Buttner also argued there were several inconstancies in Cangiano’s and Bardi’s testimony when they were called to the stand on Wednesday, and they not only turned on each other but on Pinkney and Fisher and couldn’t be trusted.

Pinkney declined comment Friday when leaving the Luzerne County Courthouse.

Fisher said he plans to fight the verdict.