A Christmas Story from the Attorney at Large

A Christmas Story, Compliments of the PA Supreme Court
By James Castagnera, Attorney at Large
“Merry Christmas, Nedster,” I greeted my attorney-friend Ned McAdoo, as I approached his table in Havertown’s Sampan Inn. Why he had selected sushi for our final weekly lunch of year was a mystery to me… until I spied the warm sake on the table.
“Ho, ho, ho,” Ned responded, obviously a couple of belts of the clear, warm rice wine ahead of me. He was reading this week’s Legal Intelligencer. “I love a good Christmas story, don’t you?”
“Sure,” I said, slipping into my seat. “Who doesn’t?”
Sipping his sake, Ned continued, “Here’s one to share with the kiddies around the tree this year.” Without further ado, he shared the report of a case decided by our Supreme Court in mid-October. In Commonwealth v. Rega the Supremes confirmed the defendant’s conviction for first-degree murder. His crime was committed on December 21, 2000. According to the court, the facts were these:
“On December 21, 2000, at about 9:00 in the evening, Appellant [Rega] and his friends Stanford (Stan) and Susan Jones (Susan), who were married, and Shawn Bair (Bair) were at Appellant's trailer residence bemoaning their lack of funds for Christmas presents for their children. Appellant devised a plan to rob the Gateway Lodge, where both he and Bair previously worked as night watchmen. Due to their prior employment, Appellant and Bair were familiar with the Gateway Lodge and knew that there was a safe and an ATM machine, both of which contained substantial amounts of cash. The participants intended that during the robbery, nobody would get hurt.”
Susan stayed home to baby-sit, while the three men, plus a fourth they recruited, armed themselves with a butcher knife and a gun, donned stocking masks and gloves, and set off for the lodge. The plan was to corner the night watchman inside and force him to lure the owner into the office, where she would help them access the ATM.
Anyone who has done last-minute holiday shopping knows that things can get hairy in a hurry. This little trip was no exception. The watchman was encountered outside… no huge problem for crooks driving something other than a 1989 Buick badly in need of bodywork. Not dissuaded by the near-certainty that the watchman could ID the car, the foursome leaped out and subdued him.
Once inside they forced the watchman to ring up the owner. On his first try--- perhaps due to the proximity of the butcher knife to his throat --- he rang up a wrong number. On try two he got the owner’s answering machine. Perhaps she herself was at Target, picking up a few last-minute gifts.
“By now,” commented Ned, “alarms in all these guy’s heads should have been screeching ‘abort, abort.’ But no…”
Instead, in the court’s words, “The group proceeded to the room where the safe was kept. After locating it under a desk, Stan and Fishell began to move it while Appellant held Lauth [the watchman] at gunpoint. Appellant radioed Bair to tell him to pull Stan's Buick up so they could load the safe into it. As Fishell and Stan carried the safe to the car, Appellant fired several shots at the ATM in an unsuccessful attempt to break into it. The group also cut various wires in the office because they were concerned about police being notified somehow.

“After failing to gain entry to the ATM and then cutting the wires in the office, Appellant moved Lauth into the kitchen at gunpoint. Fishell and Stan joined Appellant and Lauth. Upon Fishell and Stan's appearance in the kitchen, Appellant hit Lauth with his flashlight and then handed it to Fishell, instructing him to hit the victim. Fishell hit Lauth one time. Appellant then fired the gun at the freezer door in an attempt to open it. To escape any potential ricochet, Fishell returned to the car. At the same time, Stan found Lauth's vehicle in the parking lot and drove it over the hillside down an embankment, and then he returned to the car. Bair was still in the car, acting as a lookout. While Stan, Fishell, and Bair waited in the car, they heard a gunshot, a scream, a gurgling sound, and then another couple of gunshots. Appellant ran out of the building, got into the car, and directed Bair to drive….
“After arriving at Appellant's trailer, they used a grinder to open the safe. The group, along with Susan, separated the items from the safe and split the money four ways, about $5000 each. Appellant then instructed the group to put all credit cards and papers they found in the safe back into it, and took it to the car. They stuffed a kerosene soaked blanket into the safe, lit it on fire, and dumped it down an embankment…. Later in the day on December 22, 2000, Appellant gave his gun, wrapped inside a bag, to Stan. Stan put the wrapped gun in his car, drove away with his wife Susan, and threw the gun into a creek.”
The justices didn’t say whether the Stan and Susan went to the nearest Wal-Mart and loaded up on Christmas goodies for their kids. We do know that Rega bought himself a holiday gift… a second-hand Dodge Neon, which he paid for in cash. His sudden cash position was one reason the cops caught onto him.
“When I read this stuff, buddy,” I told Ned, taking a big swig of the sake myself, “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
“Like I said, Seamus,” Ned toasted me with his little sake cup, “Ho, ho, ho.”
[Jim Castagnera, formerly of Jim Thorpe, is the Associate Provost/Associate Counsel at Rider University. His new novel is “Ned McAdoo and the Molly Maguires,” available at www.lulu.com]