Jan 28, 2023 6 min read

The ex-girlfriend of Keith David Wilk testified during his preliminary hearing on homicide and other charges Friday that he called her “out of the blue” in July 2020 and confessed to robbing a bank seven years earlier in which he allegedly shot and killed a good Samaritan trying to stop him.

Wilk apparently sobbed on the phone as he gave Tina Vennebush specific details about the robbery at the Citizens Bank inside the Giant Eagle grocery store in South Strabane Township on June 16, 2013, that left a man dead.

A crowd followed the robber outside the store, and 46-year-old Vincent “Mystro” Kelley of Washington was shot five times after he leaped into the back seat of the getaway car trying to thwart the heist.

“He had to be a hero in the crowd,” Vennebush recalled Wilk telling her during that 2020 phone call.

Vennebush, who had been in a relationship with Wilk since 2015 after they met through a Veterans Affairs drug rehabilitation program, didn’t completely understand what he was telling her and brushed the conversation off.

“At that time, I didn’t believe him,” Vennebush said. “I thought it was a joke.”

But the more she questioned Wilk about it in the coming weeks, he “shrugged it off” and told her that his friends had committed the bank robbery and shooting. She kept the details of that phone conversation to herself until she began searching online news stories of the robbery that seemed to corroborate Wilk’s knowledge of what transpired.

“The more I read about it online, the more details seemed to line up,” Vennebush said. “I never got it out of my mind. It just bothered me.”

The couple broke up last January, and Vennebush contacted South Strabane police in October to let investigators know that she had information that might help them solve Kelley’s killing after the case had gone cold for nearly a decade.

South Strabane Detective Kenneth Torboli testified at the preliminary hearing that he interviewed Vennebush twice and believed her story, prompting investigators to begin checking Wilk’s background, including learning that he drove a white car similar to the one used in the robbery.

A DNA sample found on the “snap” of the umbrella that the robber left behind matched a sample from Wilk that was uploaded to a national police database on Dec. 17, according to Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh. Wilk was arrested three days later and charged with Kelley’s killing and the bank robbery. Another DNA sample taken from Wilk on Dec. 26 after he was in custody also matched what was found on the umbrella.

Wilk’s arrest capped nearly a decade in which many in the community wondered if the case would ever be solved. Several workers and shoppers at Giant Eagle who witnessed the bank robbery testified at Wilk’s preliminary hearing before Senior Judge Larry Hopkins in Washington County Central Court at the courthouse. After hearing testimony for more than an hour, Hopkins ordered Wilk, 39, of Pittsburgh, to stand trial on all charges.

Sherry King, who was working as a teller at Citizens Bank the day of the robbery, testified that she could hear footprints from “squeaky boots” and turned to see a man dressed all in black wearing a straw hat, mask and gloves while carrying an umbrella in one hand and a gun in the other.

“At first I thought someone was playing a joke on us, but then after looking at the gun, I realized it was a robbery,” King said.

“We’re trained for that, but in the moment you don’t know what to do,” King said before trailing off and crying as she recalled thinking about her children at the time. “I didn’t know how it was going to go that day.”

The robber demanded that King and her coworker open their registers and put the cash in a small soft side cooler. As King handed over the money – which had a dye pack inserted in the bottom – she noticed a group of people in the grocery store began to shout that the bank was being robbed. She tried to calm the situation so the robber wouldn’t “get hostile,” but the commotion caused him to leave the bank with the cooler filled with cash.

A crowd followed him out, including Kelley, who was closest to the robber as they ran from the store and toward a parked car. Joseph Manning testified that he followed the crowd out the door and watched as Kelley got into the rear of the vehicle and tussled with the robber. Manning then heard a “pop” and saw a red mist in the air, which appeared to be the dye pack exploding.

Moments later, he heard four gunshots as the car sped away behind the grocery store with Kelley still in the backseat. As he and others ran to the opposite side of the store, they found Kelley lying on the ground struggling to breathe. They tried to resuscitate Kelley until police and paramedics arrived, and he was taken by ambulance to Washington Hospital, where he died.

Washington County Coroner Timothy Warco said Kelley suffered five gunshot wounds, with the bullets striking his chin, neck, upper left chest and both shoulders. He died of the gunshot wound to his trunk and his cause of death was listed as homicide, Warco said.

Wilk, who is being held without bond at the Washington County jail, was arrested Dec. 20 and charged with homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, possession of a prohibited firearm, carrying a firearm without a license and reckless endangerment. He appeared in person during the preliminary hearing and was shackled and wearing orange prison clothes while seated between his two public defense attorneys, Josh Carroll and Patrick Fitch.

Numerous friends and family members of Kelley sat in the gallery and listened to testimony during the hearing. Diane Margie, who raised Kelley, said her son “had a heart of gold” and was trying to help when he was killed. She said the family is thankful that someone has been charged in the case after waiting so long for answers.

“It’s bittersweet,” Margie said. “But my son will get his justice.”