The 59-year-old is charged with killing three people and trying to kill two others. The charges were sent today to Monroe County Court after a preliminary hearing.
Charges against a man accused of killing three people at an August municipal meeting in Monroe County were sent today to county court after a preliminary hearing.
Rockne Newell, 59, is charged with killing township zoning officer David Fleetwood, who died at St. Luke's University Hospital in Fountain Hill; Saylorsburg residents Gerald Kozic and James Laguardia; and with trying to kill Frank Piraino Jr. and Linda Kozic, court papers say. Two additional charges of attempted murder were added today.
District Judge Kristina Anzini ruled there was enough evidence presented today for Newell to face trial in county court, unless there is a guilty plea or other disposition of the charges.
An emotional Linda Kozic, still in a wheelchair after suffering a serious leg wound in the shooting, spoke this afternoon to a large group of media outside the courtroom.
"It turned out exactly the way it would," she said of the hearing. She said she trusted in the prosecutors' ability to provide Newell a fair trial and bring him to justice.
Monroe County District Attorney David Christine said it's important that the public and the media respect Newell's presumption of innocence. Christine wouldn't comment on the evidence presented today except to say, "It was difficult to hear and see."
Prosecutors played a disturbing audio recording that captured the chaos of the summertime rampage.
The Ross Township supervisors routinely record their meetings and the tape was rolling when the gunman blasted his way into the room, yelling obscenities as people screamed and overturned tables.
In the chaotic aftermath, Linda Kozic, who had been shot in the leg, could be heard on the tape begging her husband, Gerald Kozic, to breathe and “stay with me.”
He said the district attorney's office will seek the death penalty.
Defense attorney Michael Weinstein, a public defender, said it is a difficult case and it is a long way from reaching a conclusion, whether it ends in a jury's decision or a plea.
Newell kept his eyes closed for much of the hearing and appeared to occasionally nod off. Weinstein said Newell was not sleeping, but listening carefully and participating in his defense.
One of five witnesses to testify before a brief recess about noon, Bernie Kozen recounted putting Newell into a bear hug during the shooting at the Aug. 5 meeting of the Ross Township Board of Supervisors. Kozen tackled Newell with help from 47-year-old Ross Township resident Mark Kresh, authorities said.
"For some reason I just felt I had to take action," said Kozen, the township's West End Regional Park and open space executive director.
Newell left the municipal building after an initial barrage of gunfire, using a semiautomatic rifle to fire through a window and then entering the meeting room still firing the rifle, according to court records. As Newell allegedly made his way back, with a handgun retrieved from his rental car, Kozen could be heard on the recording from the meeting saying: "He's coming back inside."
Kozen said he hid in an office and waited for the 5-foot, 10-inch tall, 240-pound Newell to walk by, then tackled him with Kresh, according to testimony. Newell was shot in the leg during the scuffle, police said.
"I really appreciate what you did that day," an assistant prosecutor told Kozen today. "You probably saved several lives."
Police said Newell, a disabled junk dealer, was upset over losing his debris-strewn property in the wake of a court battle with the township over complaints that he lived in a storage shed, built an illegal culvert and used a bucket outside as a toilet.
He has said he regrets that “innocent people got hurt,” but claimed township officials persecuted him for more than two decades, according to court records. He allegedly told police he had gone to the meeting in hopes of finding the township officials in one place.
At his arraignment on homicide charges the day after the shootings, a judge asked Newell if he owned any real estate.
“They stole it from me. That’s what started all this,” he replied.
Among those also testifying today were an attorney Newell allegedly said he wanted to kill, John Dunn, and an emergency medical technician who responded.
During a brief recess in the hearing, Newell's father, Lyndon Newell, said he didn't think his son was a murderer and he was just pushed too far. When he was asked about innocent people who were shot at the meeting who didn't push Newell during his long property dispute with the township, he said, "I guess you would call it" murder. "But they happened to be in the same place as the people who did."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
