Oct 6, 2017 3 min read

A man who survived an execution-style shooting and the men accused of kidnapping and shooting him are being held in Washington County jail as a result of a rare judicial ruling.

Marcus R. Stancik, 30, who has addresses in Washington and Pittsburgh, was placed in jail Friday on a material witness warrant issued by Washington County Judge John DiSalle.

“It is not used very frequently. It’s not very common that you see this practice,” said Washington County Assistant District Attorney Jerry Moschetta. “It’s used in extremely important cases.”

Stancik was subpoenaed to appear before District Judge Ethan Ward Monday for the preliminary hearing of Keith Anthony “Sin” Rosario, 26, of 449 Ewing St., Washington, who is charged with pulling the trigger Sept. 5 in South Franklin Township.

The warrant was requested by the district attorney’s office because Stancik failed to appear for the originally scheduled Sept. 25 preliminary hearing, said Moschetta. Moschetta said Stancik was hand-delivered a subpoena to appear in court.

“(The warrant) is for a witness not likely to appear or who has failed to appear in the past,” said Moschetta.

After Rosario’s hearing Monday, Stancik is scheduled to appear before DiSalle, who will determine if he is released on bond or detained. Moschetta said it is “not probable, but possible” Stancik would be detained throughout Rosario’s court hearings.

According to court documents, Stancik was found by a state trooper around 10:40 p.m. on Cove Road. He had been shot in the back, below the skull.

Stancik, who was taken to Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, told the trooper he knew the man who shot him by the nickname “Sin.”

The trooper, who was familiar with the name, asked Stancik if he meant Rosario, to which Stancik replied, “Yes, Keith Rosario.”

Stancik, who said he knew Rosario for about a week, told troopers he was walking in an alley near Route 40 when Rosario and another man, later identified by police as Richard Dewey Lacks Jr., 23, of Washington, got out of a vehicle, assaulted him and threw him in the vehicle.

He said he was placed in the back seat, driven to Cove Road and shot in the back of his head, the record states.

A motive for the crime was not listed and court records do not indicate how Stancik escaped from his alleged kidnappers.

A court official said police said Stancik fell into a body of water after he was shot and swam away from the shooting scene.

Rosario, who was denied bond by Ward, and Lacks, who is in Washington County jail on $1 million bond, are each charged with attempted homicide, kidnapping, aggravated assault and conspiracy.

Rosario was a “person of interest” in an unsolved execution-style murder in Washington in 2015, according to court records. Investigators suspected he might be involved in the slaying of Marius TreVaughn Chatman, whose partially nude and bullet-riddled body was found in the Seventh Ward playground about 4 a.m. March 4. However, the investigation failed to produce enough evidence to make an arrest in the Chatman murder.