Joshua M. Lukach, whom prosecutors allege was one of two men who killed a Pottsville businessman in August 2015 at his home, asked police to stop questioning him, city police Chief Richard J. Wojciechowsky testified Tuesday.
“I don’t want to talk,” is what Lukach said, according to Wojciechowsky, who testified during a 2 1/2-hour pre-trial hearing before Schuylkill County Judge Jacqueline L. Russell on motions filed by Lukach and his co-defendant, Shavinskin N. Thomas, 22, of Pottsville.
Wojciechowsky’s testimony could damage the case against Lukach, 19, of Pottsville, who is seeking to have statements he made during the interview at Pottsville City Hall, and evidence recovered as a result of them, barred from evidence.
At the end of Tuesday’s hearing, Russell ordered the parties to reconvene at 1:30 p.m. today to hear additional testimony concerning Thomas.
Lukach and Thomas each are charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, conspiracy, robbery, burglary, criminal trespass, theft, receiving stolen property, access device fraud, recklessly endangering another person, possessing instruments of crime and two counts of aggravated assault.
Pottsville police alleged that in the early morning hours of Aug. 6, 2015, Lukach and Thomas entered John Brock’s 14 S. 12th St. home, fatally stabbed him with a knife and a box-cutter knife and took his debit card, which they used at an automatic teller machine later that day in the city. Brock was the owner of the now-closed Pottsville Bike and Board Shop, 125 W. Market St.
“Me and ... Thomas ... went upstairs. We had to grab (Brock),” Lukach said during the interview, which police recorded on a DVD that Russell complained was almost impossible to hear in a number of places. “He woke up. (Thomas) cut his throat.”
Prosecutors have filed against each man a notice of their intent to seek the death penalty and the aggravating circumstances that would justify it.
Lukach and Thomas each sat through Tuesday’s hearing wearing a prison jumpsuit, leg shackles, handcuffs and a belt, and neither said anything before being returned to prison, where each is being held without bail.
Jeffrey M. Markosky, Mahanoy City, who, along with Julie A. Werdt, Orwigsburg, represents Lukach, alleged that the continued questioning of Lukach violated his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, and that any statements and evidence obtained as a result cannot constitutionally be used against him.
“You were telling Mr. Lukach that his time to talk was now?” Markosky asked Wojciechowsky.
“Yes,” Wojciechowsky said.
Wojciechowsky denied questioning Lukach after the defendant said he did not want to talk.
“I don’t believe I asked him any questions after that point,” which he did not interpret as a request to end the interview, the chief said.
On the DVD, Lukach appears to fidget in his chair as he and Wojciechowsky talk.
“At any time did you try to help Mr. Brock ... or did you just get out?” Wojciechowsky asked Lukach.
“I got out,” Lukach said.
City police Detective Kirk A. Becker, the prosecuting officer, testified that his normal procedure in such a case would have been to run a credit check and history for Brock. He said that would have revealed when and where Brock’s ATM and credit cards would have been used, which would have led to police to find a video of the transaction they allege shows Lukach using Brock’s ATM card in the city.
First Assistant District Attorney John T. Fegley, who is prosecuting the case with Deputy Assistant District Attorney Robert I. Lipkin, will use that testimony to try to prove that evidence would have been inevitably discovered and is admissible even if Russell determines Lukach’s rights were violated by the questioning.