News

November 20, 2009

Jury will decide in Hazleton beating

Deliberations start today in the case against 2 men in the home invasion beating of the Caputos.

By Sheena Delazio sdelazio@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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WILKES-BARRE – A Luzerne County jury today will begin deliberating the fate of two men prosecutors say assaulted a prominent elderly Hazleton couple in their home last year.

County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. will instruct the jury of eight men and six women, including two alternates, on the law linked to the eight charges against Daniel Pinkney, 22, and Kevin Fisher, 27.

Pinkney and Fisher are charged with several counts of aggravated assault, robbery, criminal conspiracy and related charges.

Deputy District Attorney David Pedri and Assistant District Attorney Albert Yacoub presented the last of their witnesses Thursday morning, including a DNA forensic analyst who testified that the blood of Martha and Nicholas Caputo was found inside the Jeep Grand Cherokee of Anthony Cangiano, who prosecutors say orchestrated the robbery-gone-bad with another man.

Prosecutors say Pinkney and Fisher entered the Caputos’ Pine Street home to rob them. But the robbery went sour when they found Martha Caputo watching TV in the living room. The duo expected only Nicholas Caputo, 79, to be home.

Prosecutors say Pinkney struck Martha Caputo, 76, several times while trying to smother her, while Fisher assaulted Nicholas Caputo as he tried to help his wife.

Investigators say the couple were targeted because their family owns Caputo’s Ice Plant, a successful business in the Hazleton area. The attackers got away with no money.

Prosecutors called Hazleton city police Detective Gino Fedullo, who testified Fisher told him he was involved in the “smash-and-grab.” Also called was a state police corporal who testified he found seven blood stains in Cangiano’s vehicle.

Defense attorney John Donovan, who represents Pinkney, called Fedullo back to the stand and read a statement Pinkney made to police that said he was playing football and then hanging out at a friend’s house playing video games the night of the attack. Pinkney told police he and a group of friends then went to a Hazleton bar before going home to bed.

Fisher’s attorney, Robert Buttner, said in his closing argument that jurors need to be impartial in their deliberations and that no evidence links his client to the scene of the crime.

Buttner said there was no hair, blood or other evidence that placed Fisher at the attack scene, and he was very rarely mentioned in testimony.

Donovan and Buttner said Martha Caputo described the attackers as big and large, which fits the description of Cangiano and Joseph Bardi, who were around 300 pounds at the time of the attack.

Donovan and Buttner depicted Cangiano and Bardi, who testified Wednesday for the prosecution, as “greedy” and “ruthless” because not only were they turning on Pinkney and Fisher, but on each other as well in their testimony that placed all four men at the scene.

Pedri said in his closing statement that Pinkney and Fisher must be the “unluckiest” men in the world because Cangiano and Bardi are placing them at the scene when they say they weren’t there.

Pedri demonstrated how Pinkney tried to smother Martha Caputo with a shoe box and then hit her in the head with a handgun.

As for Fisher, Pedri said, he admitted to Fedullo that it was a “smash-and-grab” job that went wrong.

Pedri said he hopes the jurors find both men guilty of each of the eight counts because the Caputos’ home hasn’t felt the same to the couple since the attack.

“It’s time to give the Caputos back their home,” Pedri said.

Investigators say the couple were targeted because their family owns Caputo’s Ice Plant, a successful business in the Hazleton area. The attackers got away with no money.

Sheena Delazio, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7235.

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