GUILTY PA - Samuel Vacante, 52, Drums, 31 Aug 2015

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Samuel J. Vacante - White / Male / 52 Years Old

2013? White Kia Cadenza Sedan - PA Registration: JMR-9595


Butler Township, Luzerne County, is in North-Eastern, PA.

Day 4

Wed., Sep. 2nd: PA Homepage© :

http://www.pahomepage.com/news/missing-samuel-vacante :

Includes Photo

Butler Township Police :: 570-788-4111 :: (7 A.M. to 3 P.M.)
http://www.butlertownship.org/services/police.html

Awaiting:

Height - Weight - Eye Color - Hair Color/Length/Style - Facial Hair
Distinguishing Characteristics

Vehicle: Confirmation of Year -- Premium or Limited Style
Roof Color -- Sunroof?

Also:

http://standardspeaker.com/news/drums-man-reported-missing-1.1935504
&
http://wnep.com/2015/09/03/police-searching-for-missing-man-from-drums/

IMO: Stock Photo of Similar Vehicle:

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/...PKs5k0rhnJa57u0RM4zumZi7p2NrQeP_eTFBgcvXV9VtA

2014 Cadenza:

http://www.edmunds.com/kia/cadenza/2014/sedan/st-200498662/used/?tab-id=reviews-tab



We Sleuthers Proudly Think Beyond The Link.
 
Car Recovered -- Two Homes Searched -- One Arrest

Samuel J. Vacante - W/M/52 - Luzerne County - 31 Aug 2015

Samuel J. Vacante - White / Male / 52 Years Old

Butler Township, Luzerne County, is in North-Eastern, PA.

Day 5

Thu., Sep. 3rd: Times Leader© :

http://timesleader.com/news/380210/...ce-near-hazleton-area-elementarymiddle-school :

Includes Photo

PA State Police :: 570-459-3890

Awaiting:
Height - Weight - Eye Color
Head Hair Color/Length/Style
Facial Hair - Color/Style
Distinguishing Characteristics

Also:

http://standardspeaker.com/news/police-charge-man-after-search-closes-school-1.1937060
&
http://wnep.com/2015/09/03/man-charged-after-police-search-two-homes-in-luzerne-county/
&
https://ujsportal.pacourts.us/docketsheets/MDJReport.ashx?docketNumber=MJ-11103-CR-0000328-2015
 
This is less than a mile from where I live.

Seems so strange when something like this happens so close by.

Fairly rural area here although the town just up the road (Hazleton) is known to have its share of crime.
 
Not much out there on the disappearance of Mr. Vacante like where he was seen or who he was with.

I think the police have an idea of what happened to him, especially given the fact that they've arrested a man who seems to be related to the disappearance in some way.
 
Car Recovered -- Two Homes Searched* -- One Arrest**

Samuel John Vacante - W/M/52 - Luzerne County - 31 Aug 2015

Samuel John Vacante - White / Male / 52 Years Old

Butler Township, Luzerne County, is in North-Eastern, PA.

Day 6


Fri., Sep. 4th: Republican-Herald© :

http://m.republicanherald.com/news/police-log-sept-5-2015-1.1937597 :

PA State Police :: 570-459-3890

Awaiting:
Height - Weight - Eye Color
Head Hair Color/Length/Style
Facial Hair - Color/Style
Distinguishing Characteristics

Also:
*http://wnep.com/2015/09/03/man-charged-after-police-search-two-homes-in-luzerne-county/ :

Searched Home on Video at 01:30 [One Minute : 30 Seconds]

Area Map:
*http://www.bing.com/maps/#Y3A9NDAuM...vdmVudHJ5JTIwUmQuJTJDJTIwRHJ1bXMlMkMlMjBQQQ== :

Zoom :: Bird's Eye View :: Rotate All 4 Directions

Also:
**https://ujsportal.pacourts.us/docketsheets/MDJReport.ashx?docketNumber=MJ-11103-CR-0000328-2015
 
Local news facebook page posted a picture of a criminal docket showing that the suspect named in the above articles, Eleazar Yisreal, has been arrested for homicide, abuse of a corpse, etc.

He was originally being detained on unrelated charge which I imagine was to keep a hold on him while they gathered evidence.

https://www.facebook.com/HZTN1/photos/pcb.1622735734649471/1622735204649524/?type=1&theater

Interesting comments below the picture.

ETA: I guess you have to go to the Hazleton News 1 facebook page itself to see the comments as they are below the picture and not on the picture itself.
 
Details from a press conference that was held this afternoon....

On August 31st, Butler Township Police responded to a 911 call for a missing person identified as Samuel Vacante. This call was placed by Lisa Vacante, the estranged wife of Samuel Vacante.

When police searched Vacante's home, they found blood on the garage floor as well as a strong smell of bleach in an apparent attempt to destroy the evidence.

Through the investigation, it was learned that the victim's estranged wife, Lisa Vacante, had began a romantic relationship with Yisrael approximately two years prior to the homicide.

Yisrael is the man accused of the homicide.
 
From October:

http://wnep.com/2015/10/07/accused-killer-in-luzerne-county-court/

Preliminary hearings are typically short. This one lasted seven hours and had 10 witnesses and 55 pieces of evidence.

And the accused murder was kicked out of the court room for most of the hearing...

Even though Yisrael's family disagreed with the evidence at the court proceeding, the magistrate thought there was enough information to send the case to trial.

http://citizensvoice.com/news/suspicious-text-messages-preceded-drums-man-s-death-1.1954490

Brandon Vacante said a group text sent on Aug. 31 to about 20 contacts in his father’s phone said his father was fed up with everything, he was leaving for a period of time and he would make his wife, who he was separated from, power of attorney to handle his assets...

State police at Hazleton said Eleazar Yisrael... is accused of fatally shooting the victim in the back in his Drums home Aug. 31, then attempting to clean up the crime scene with bleach before placing the body in Samuel Vacante’s vehicle and then ditching the body in the woods in Penn Forest Township...

The day Samuel Vacante was reported missing, court papers state, Yisrael, wearing digital-style camouflage clothing, was spotted by Butler Township police walking on South Old Turnpike Road, about two miles from the victim’s home at 1:13 a.m. Officers questioned him but found no crime committed at that point, so they let him continue on his way, which was in the direction of Coventry Lane, police wrote.
 
Prosecutors deny wrongdoing in wake of Hazleton homicide trial’s delay - August

http://timesleader.com/news/579481/judge-postpones-hazleton-mans-homicide-trial-on-slated-start-date

A dispute over evidence prompted a Luzerne County judge on Thursday to push back the court date of a Hazleton man charged with shooting another man in the back on the day the suspected killer’s trial was slated to begin, according to court officials.

The panel will now be convened later this year, after Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough continued the trial until Dec. 5, according to court records.

The nearly three-month delay comes a day after Yisrael’s attorneys, Allyson L. Kacmarski and Mary V. Deady, argued their defense was hampered because prosecutors failed to disclose evidence in their possession for nearly a year.
 
Jury selection this morning in Drums homicide

http://citizensvoice.com/news/jury-selection-this-morning-in-drums-homicide-1.2126407

The murder trial against a Hazleton man accused of fatally shooting his lover’s estranged husband got under way with jury selection Monday.

Eleazar Yisrael, 31, of 33 W. 10th St., is accused of fatally shooting Samuel Vacante in the back in his Drums home on Aug. 31, 2015. Prosecutors allege Yisrael, who was romantically involved with Vacante’s wife, tried to clean up the crime scene with bleach before loading the body into Vacante’s vehicle and then ditching it in the woods in Penn Forest Township, Carbon County.

The trial was set to begin in August but was delayed on the eve of jury selection after defense attorneys Allyson Kacmarski and Mary V. Deady alleged prosecutors failed to turn over surveillance video showing Yisrael pumping gas into Vacante’s vehicle the night of the slaying until last week when they also submitted a pair of camouflage pants seized from Yisrael’s home last September to be tested to determine whose blood was on the upper front pant leg.

The untimely disclosure of the evidence left the defense ill-equipped to properly defend Yisrael and amounted to “prosecutorial misconduct,” the alleged.

Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough found no evidence of misconduct but granted a continuance after chiding prosecutors for failing to promptly turn over the evidence.
 
Victim’s girlfriend testifies at Eleazar Yisrael’s homicide trial

https://timesleader.com/news/613325/victims-girlfriend-testifies-at-eleazar-yisraels-homicide-trial

A lover’s familiar voice, a commotion, then silence.

Those were the sounds Jennifer Daley said she heard last year during a call from Samuel Vacante that would be the couple’s last. Daley’s concern for her boyfriend mounted as multiple follow up calls to Vacante’s cellphone went unanswered and others were met with a man’s garbled voice on the other end.

“Hospital. Stitches,” the voice said during one call. “Love you,” Daley was told in the last.

Prosecutors allege the voice didn’t belong to Vacante, but to the man who moments earlier murdered him via a rifle blast to the back. Daley, however, said she had no basis to believe the man on the other line was anyone other than her boyfriend.

Investigators testified Tuesday that Yisrael, clad head-to-toe in digital camouflage, was spotted the morning of Vacante’s murder walking down road less than 2 miles from his home. The outfit was odd, investigators said, because it was a warm, muggy day.

Yisrael, though “uncooperative,” told police he was out on a walk and was let go, investigators testified. The encounter piqued authorities’ interest after it was discovered the husband of Yisrael’s girlfriend had gone missing and was presumed murdered.
 
Evidence mounts against suspect in Drums murder

http://citizensvoice.com/news/evidence-mounts-against-suspect-in-drums-murder-1.2127397

The evidence against murder suspect Eleazar Yisrael mounted Wednesday as prosecutors showed jurors he had a treasure trove of the victim’s personal effects squirreled away in the days after the shooting — including the keys to the victim’s stolen car and a unique hunting knife.

During the trial’s third day Wednesday, jurors heard that state troopers recovered a number of Yisrael’s fingerprints from the exterior of Vacante’s car, which was recovered on West Eighth Street in Hazleton, two blocks from Yisrael’s home.

When state police went to search Yisrael’s home on Sept. 3, 2015, they found two recently discarded blue latex gloves, as well as a black Sharpie marker on the front porch of the same variety used to black out the vehicle identification number on Vacante’s car, Trooper John Corrigan testified.

Troopers found more latex gloves inside the home, along with tax papers and piles of mail belonging to Vacante and his estranged wife, Lisa Vacante, Corrigan said. They also found a compact disc on which Samuel Vacante’s girlfriend, Jennifer Daley, recorded herself singing for her boyfriend, he said.

“That particular CD was made for the victim by Jennifer Daley,” Corrigan said. “She made that CD specifically for Samuel Vacante, as a gift.”
 
Jury shown graphic crime scene photos at murder trial

http://standardspeaker.com/news/jury-shown-graphic-crime-scene-photos-at-murder-trial-1.2127967

Murder suspect Eleazar Yisrael’s fingerprint was found on the back of his alleged victim’s license plate, which had been removed from the stolen car and stuffed into the trunk’s spare tire well — under a mat stained by the victim’s blood, jurors heard Thursday.

After ambushing Vacante in his own garage, Yisrael dragged the body, leaving a trail of blood, and loaded it into the trunk of Vacante’s Kia Cadenza before driving to the Poconos, where he ditched the body in some woods off Petrarch Trail in Penn Forest Township, Carbon County, according to prosecutors.

Jurors on Thursday saw video surveillance showing a white sedan pull up to get gas at Choice Cigarette Discount Outlet in Blakeslee shortly after 8 p.m. Aug. 31, 2015. A man wearing blue camouflage pants, a T-shirt and black boots gets out of the car and goes inside to get a drink.

Prosecutors say that man was Yisrael.
 
Prosecution rests in Hazleton man’s murder trial

The night Samuel Vacante disappeared, a group text sent from his phone told his family, “I love yu all.”

The message, which also bequeathed all his worldly possessions to his estranged wife, Lisa Vacante, was highly unusual for a number of reasons — the spelling of “yu” included, prosecutors say.

A check of Samuel Vacante’s cellphone revealed that over the course of several years, he had never before used that spelling, Pennsylvania State Police trooper Cpl. Shawn Williams testified Monday. The man accused of killing Samuel Vacante, meanwhile, used the slang “yu” on his own cellphone 168 times in the two months prior to the Aug. 31, 2015, slaying, Williams said.

“It’s obvious that (Samuel Vacante) wouldn’t have used that,” Williams said, adding that he believes Eleazar Yisrael, 31, of Hazleton, sent out the texts as a ruse to cover up the shooting.

Accused killer takes the stand

Accused killer Eleazar Yisrael took the stand in his own defense Monday, telling jurors he was not responsible for the shooting death of his girlfriend’s estranged husband.

The night before the Aug. 31, 2015, shooting — when troopers allege he stopped all communications as he headed to ambush Samuel Vacante — Yisrael claimed to have been doing some “renovations” at home in Hazleton prior to watching a “meditation video” as he laid in bed. After his girlfriend, Lisa Vacante, texted him looking for sex, he stopped responding because he wasn’t interested, he said.

He admitted being the person stopped walking along South Old Turnpike Road early the morning of the shooting, but said he was not headed to Vacante’s house at 20 Coventry Road in Drums, as prosecutors alleged.

The stroll was “just to take a walk, clear my head,” Yisrael said. The day Vacante was killed, Yisrael spent alone at home, “sleeping most of the day,” he said.

Murder victim’s wife testifies about strange texts

During police questioning about the disappearance of her estranged husband — whose murder allowed her to take sole possession of the family house — Lisa Vacante asked about getting a lawyer, jurors heard Friday.

Testifying on the fifth day of the murder trial against her boyfriend, Vacante, 53, said a friend suggested she get one because she had already talked to police a few times and they were continuing to question her about the case.

“It was really nothing other than that,” Vacante said during cross-examination. “I think it’s just what normal people do.”

By some accounts, the couple was at odds over the house — Samuel Vacante’s girlfriend, 34-year-old Jennifer Daley, previously testified that he wanted to sell it and move on with his life, while Lisa Vacante wanted to keep the house for her own use.

But during questioning by defense attorney Allyson Kacmarski on Friday, Lisa Vacante said that was wrong.

“I was not opposed to selling the house. That is not true,” Lisa Vacante said.

The issue, she said was that she was unhappy with an appraisal of the property but they were continuing to work toward selling the house.

Lisa Vacante testified that the night of the shooting, she was at work until about 7 p.m. — several hours after her husband was killed, according to prosecutors.
 
Eleazar Yisrael convicted of killing girlfriend’s estranged husband; gets life in prison

https://timesleader.com/news/615350/jurors-asked-to-consider-who-benefited-from-victims-murder

Eleazar Yisrael said he isn’t a killer. A jury decided he is.

The five women and seven men charged with rendering a verdict in the seven-day homicide trial returned to the Luzerne County courtroom Tuesday after just under four hours of deliberations, delivering a conviction on all counts and effectively ending Yisrael’s time as a free man.

The convicted killer sat silently with his hands in front of his face as the foreperson repeated “guilty” on counts of first-degree murder, robbery, burglary, abuse of a corpse and evidence tampering. He remained stoic as a judge sentenced him to life in prison.

The family of victim Samuel Vacante, meanwhile, sobbed and comforted one another in the packed courtroom gallery.
 
Convicted murderer wants verdict reversed, new trial

http://citizensvoice.com/news/convicted-murderer-wants-verdict-reversed-new-trial-1.2132481

Fresh off his conviction for murder, Eleazar Yisrael filed motions Tuesday seeking to reverse the jury’s verdict because he alleges it was based on “speculation and conjecture.”

In motions filed Tuesday, defense attorney Allyson Kacmarski seeks to have Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough reverse the convictions, grant Yisrael a new trial or at least reconsider the sentence of life in prison without parole, plus an additional 14½ to 29 years.

“A review of the weight and sufficiency of the evidence makes it obvious that the (jury’s) verdict was not based upon the facts presented, but is a product of speculation and conjecture,” Kacmarski wrote.
 

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