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SWOYERSVILLE — Luzerne County prosecutors withdrew the most serious charge against an 18-year-old man who is accused of forcing his way inside a Larksville house and stabbing the elderly homeowner multiple times.
Jordan Lee Barrett, of Bedford Street, Forty Fort, appeared Thursday for a preliminary hearing before District Judge David Barilla. There prosecutors withdrew charges of criminal attempt to commit homicide, robbery, terroristic threats, reckless endangerment, tampering with evidence, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, harassment and three counts of simple assault.
Barrett, through his attorney Cheryl A. Sobeski Reedy, waived two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of burglary and criminal trespass to county court. Barrett remains jailed at the county correctional facility for lack of $250,000 bail.
Larksville police alleged Barrett kicked open a locked door at a house on East Broadway Street on Dec. 8, and waited in the kitchen for the homeowner, John Kucirka.
Kucirka, 76, responded to the noise and rushed into his kitchen where Barrett allegedly stabbed him several times in the upper chest, according to the criminal complaint.
Barrett targeted Kucirka because he had stolen his car and wanted to steal it again, the complaint says.
Police arrested Barrett when he attempted to flee his house about 90 minutes after Kucirka was found severely injured in his garage.
Kucirka was treated at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township.
After Barrett’s arrest, police allegedly found a pocket knife with blood and a bloody sweatshirt along a path in woods behind Kucirka’s house.
Police received information that Barrett had called a friend saying, “He was going to try and go on a joy ride,” and “he got a new knife and wanted to stab someone,” the complaint says.
Police said the slang “joy ride” meant stealing a car.