Spudis

Spudis

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<p>Price</p>

Price

<p>Prosecution team for Gertrude Price, 97, who was fatally stabbed inside her Nanticoke home on Thanksgiving night 2013. Front row, Deputy District Attorney Daniel E. Zola, Pennsylvania Senior Deputy Attorney General Michelle Hardick; back row, Assistant District Attorney Gerry Scott, Det. Robert Lehman, State police Trooper Edward Urban.</p>
                                 <p>Ed Lewis | Times Leader</p>

Prosecution team for Gertrude Price, 97, who was fatally stabbed inside her Nanticoke home on Thanksgiving night 2013. Front row, Deputy District Attorney Daniel E. Zola, Pennsylvania Senior Deputy Attorney General Michelle Hardick; back row, Assistant District Attorney Gerry Scott, Det. Robert Lehman, State police Trooper Edward Urban.

Ed Lewis | Times Leader

<p>Luzerne County District Attorney Samuel Sanguedolce speaks with reporters after Anthony Spudis pled guilty and was sentenced for fatally stabbing 97-year-old Gertrude Price in 2013.</p>
                                 <p>Ed Lewis | Times Leader</p>

Luzerne County District Attorney Samuel Sanguedolce speaks with reporters after Anthony Spudis pled guilty and was sentenced for fatally stabbing 97-year-old Gertrude Price in 2013.

Ed Lewis | Times Leader

WILKES-BARRE — Luzerne County Deputy District Attorney Daniel E. Zola said the incarceration of Anthony Michael Spudis in 2014 helped preserve evidence.

Spudis, 39, on Friday pled guilty to third-degree murder and burglary in the fatal stabbing of 97-year-old Gertrude Price inside her West Grand Street, Nanticoke, residence on Thanksgiving night 2013. Her body was found in her bed by a family member the next day, Nov. 28, 2013.

The agreement reached between Spudis, his attorneys and prosecutors avoided an oft-delayed death penalty trial set to begin later this month before county Judge Tina Polachek Gartley. Spudis is now set to spend decades behind bars.

State police at Wilkes-Barre alleged Spudis entered Price’s residence through a basement window, intending to ransack the home. When Price confronted him, Spudis stabbed her multiple times in the head with a screwdriver, investigators alleged.

Investigators believed Spudis, after killing Price, stole items from her home and hid them in the basement of his then apartment on West Union Street in Nanticoke. Spudis allegedly returned to Price’s home with his girlfriend to steal more items.

Zola said Spudis was jailed for unrelated burglaries and sentenced to state prison in 2014. While Spudis was in prison, Zola said county Det. Robert Lehman and state police Trooper Edward Urban “broke the case wide open” when they found items taken from Price’s home in his basement, including a pair of Timberland boots.

“We previously had castings (boot imprints) from Gertrude’s basement. Whoever the perpetrator was at the time he entered the residence through the basement, we just had to track down those boots,” Zola said.

With Lehman and Urban finding Timberland boots in Spudis’ prior residence, Zola said the Timberland’s were an exact match of the castings from Price’s basement.

“The case I would say can be characterized cold for a period of four years. Thanks to the work of Det. Lehman and Trooper Ed Urban, they followed up on a few leads a few years later and got us to where we needed to be. The case really broke wide open four years later when those two guys decided to go back to what was Anthony’s previous residence. But for that visit to the residence, this case would remain unsolved. So thank you to both of my investigators on this case,” Zola said.

Plea Agreement

Prosecutors filed a notice of aggravating circumstances May 11, 2018, announcing they were seeking the death penalty for Spudis, if convicted of first-degree homicide.

The case moved forward with trial dates set by Gartley throughout 2019 and early 2020 until the emergency shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Efforts were made when restrictions were relaxed to schedule a jury trial until another surge of COVID-19.

Spudis’ trial was scheduled to begin March 28. If convicted of first-degree murder, the penalty phase occurs where jurors decide life in prison or death.

District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said the decision to enter a plea agreement to third-degree murder was supported by Price’s family.

“I would have to thank the family throughout all the delays of this case, some of which were caused by the length of the investigation, then COVID. They could not have been more supportive with all the trauma they went through and all they had to deal with. It is really thanks to them they really supported us the whole way,” Sanguedolce noted.

Sanguedolce said Price’s family preferred not to sit through a trial reliving the traumatic experience of losing their loved one.

“The prosecution team was ready for trial. When we did the balancing act of whether it was worth pushing this to trial and given what we could get out of the plea, it is very likely he wouldn’t get out of jail anyway,” Sanguedolce said. “We followed the wishes of the family. We have a plea everyone could live with. We are very happy with the time being served. That’s how we ended up here today.”

Gartley cautiously reviewed the plea agreement with Spudis and his attorneys, Brian Scott Gaglione and Robert Allen Sauman, before accepting the deal with prosecutors.

When it came time for the sentencing phase, Price’s daughter, Carol, and her family opted not to speak.

Spudis, who was given the option to express any remorse and apologize, opted to stay quiet.

Spudis’ attorneys and Zola asked Gartley to impose the agreed upon sentence in the plea agreement, which the judge did, sentencing Spudis to 25 to 60 years in prison.

Spudis gave up his appellate rights in the plea agreement except for the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel. But, during Gartley’s questioning, Spudis said he was satisfied with his lawyers.