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WILKES-BARRE – Daniel Lock stayed calm.
Wearing a dress shirt and tie, he looked directly at one of William Rohland’s attorneys and denied being the person who burst into Kelli Fasulka’s Avoca home last year and killed two people.
On Thursday morning, Lock became the focus of attorney William Ruzzo’s grilling, as Ruzzo steered blame for the deaths of Fasulka and Joey Hernandez to Lock.
It was Lock, Ruzzo argued, who was in a rocky relationship with Fasulka.
It was Lock, too, he said, who arranged to get himself and Rohland $500 worth of cocaine to buy.
And it was Lock, Ruzzo said, who drove a car with a shotgun in the back seat to Fasulka’s home Aug. 15, 2006, before the slayings.
But Lock denied stabbing Fasulka 18 times and pumping four shots into her and Hernandez.
“It wasn’t you that did that?” Ruzzo asked.
“No, it was not,” Lock responded.
The questioning by Ruzzo in the second day of testimony in Rohland’s double-homicide trial was the first clear hint of the defense strategy being implemented by Rohland attorneys Ruzzo, Mark Singer and Michael Kostelaba.
The defense team has not yet given an opening statement. It is expected to do that when the prosecution finishes its case.
The prosecution is seeking the death penalty for Rohland in the deaths, and Lock was one of their key witnesses.
On Wednesday, he told the jury he drove Rohland to Fasulka’s Walnut Street home with the intention of buying cocaine.
But once they got there, Rohland went inside then came out, telling Lock to grab a shotgun that was stashed in the car’s backseat. As Lock complied, Fred O’Shea and Hernandez arrived and Lock followed them into the home. But, at the door, there was a collision as Rohland sprang at O’Shea.
That’s when Rohland grabbed the shotgun from Lock, Lock testified. Lock said he fled, but heard the gunshots.
Lock faced Ruzzo Thursday morning during cross-examination. The attorney said Lock clearly had motive to kill.
And Ruzzo poked at the truthfulness of Lock’s story, wondering why Lock wouldn’t warn O’Shea and Hernandez about something that was going on inside when they arrived.
Lock said he didn’t say anything to O’Shea and Hernandez because he thought they might be involved in whatever trouble Rohland was in.
“I had no clue what was going on,” he said.
The defense team later offered another indication that it may try to place the blame on someone other than Rohland.
Singer questioned Michael Mosloski about a ride that Mosloski gave to a bloody Rohland on the night of the slayings. Mosloski testified that Rohland had blood on his arms and hands and was rude when Mosloski asked him what happened.
But Singer asked Mosloski if he remembered Rohland telling him “Danbo just killed two people.”
Mosloski denied hearing that statement. Neither men identified “Danbo” or indicated whether it was a nickname for Daniel Lock.