Click here to subscribe today or Login.
By RICK ROGERS; Times Leader Staff Writer
Thursday, November 21, 1996 Page: 7A
WILKES-BARRE — Two secretly taped conversations and the testimony of the
“hit man” who recorded them took center stage Wednesday in the murder-for-hire
trial of a McAdoo man and his mother.
Frank Ciekalsky and Angela Norma Petrole are charged with trying to hire
Richard Raab, an undercover state police officer, to kill Joe David Sist. Raab
posed as “Harry the hit man” in the operation.
The first taped conversation, between Ciekalsky and Raab, occurred April 9,
1995, prosecutors said. Ciekalsky, 28, called Raab from the Luzerne County
Correctional Facility, where Ciekalsky was being held on an unrelated charge
of violating his home confinement, officials said.
In the 12-minute conversation, it was agreed that Ciekalsky would pay Raab
$5,000 to kill Sist, prosecutors contend. Petrole would deliver a $1,000 down
payment to Raab.
The tape says, in part:
Raab: “I’m going to need a grand before I do anything.”
Ciekalsky: “I already talked to my mother about it…My mother’s name is
Angela and you can call her tomorrow morning…This has to be done by
Wednesday.”
That Wednesday, Sist allegedly was to testify against Ciekalsky at a
preliminary hearing concerning an assault on a state trooper in Carbon County.
The tape continues:
Ciekalsky: “You’re sure this is going to be done so I won’t have to go to
anyone else?”
Raab: “Yeah.”
Ciekalsky: “Be sure to burn that trash.”
Prosecutors contend that the reference to “trash” was a code word for
Sist’s body.
The second taped conversation, police said, took place between Raab and
Petrole after the two met at the Blue Comet Diner in Hazleton on April 10.
Petrole got into Raab’s car and gave him $1,000 in $50 and $100 bills, Raab
testified.
During a 20-minute drive, Petrole allegedly showed Raab where Sist lived
and told him it might be better to “grab” him when he went to work at a West
Hazleton bakery, where Sist was employed as a bread truck driver.
Raab characterized Petrole as being “very nervous” and “hesitant” during
the conversation.
Under cross-examination, Raab testified that he never told Petrole that he
was going to kill Sist in exchange for money, but he felt that that was
understood.
Al Flora, Petrole’s attorney, portrayed his client as a mother who had no
idea of how her son would benefit from the $1,000 she gave Raab.
Ciekalsky wanted Sist dead, police contend, because Sist planned to testify
against Ciekalsky in connection to a March 11 assault on state trooper
Christopher Moore in Carbon County. In that assault, Moore was struck by a
four-wheel, all-terrain vehicle driven by Ciekalsky, police said.
Andrew Duncan, assistant district attorney, rested the prosecution’s case
against Ciekalsky and Petrole on Wednesday.
The defense is scheduled to put on its case starting at 1 p.m. today before
Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Conahan.
The jury of seven women and five men listened to both tapes with the aid of
printed transcripts of the conversations.