A Peters Township man is in jail on charges that he stole more than $120,000 from a Fayette County business, and then attempted to extort the owners out of even more money when they discovered the fraud. Jonathan Michael Deal, 38, was charged Monday by state police with 373 felony charges of theft by unlawful taking. He faces additional felonies of attempted extortion and unlawful use of a computer. According to the criminal complaint, in November 2022 William Shaffer Sr. and his son William Shaffer Jr., owners of Shaffer’s Fabricating in North Union Township, reported the stolen funds to state police. Court records state that the Shaffers hired Deal in September 2021 to act as the ...
A Connellsville man was killed Wednesday afternoon in a three-vehicle crash that left Route 119 in Fayette County shut down in both directions for a couple of hours. According to a news release from state police, Joseph W. Baker Jr., 25, was operating a Honda motorcycle when the crash occurred at 3:23 p.m. on Route 119 North in Bullskin Township between Kingview and McClure roads. He was pronounced deceased by Fayette County Coroner Dr. Bob Baker at 4:30 p.m. Baker Jr. was reportedly wearing a helmet, but it was used “improperly,” authorities said. The other vehicles involved in the crash were a 1995 Chevrolet Cavalier and a 2024 Infiniti QX60. The driver of the Chevrolet was ...
A Smithfield man is accused by state police of carrying on an inappropriate relationship with a teenager. Travis Wayne Swihart, 30, was charged by police Wednesday with felonies of statutory sexual assault, corruption of minors, endangering welfare of children and aggravated indecent assault. According to the criminal complaint, Swihart began communicating with the 15-year-old over Facebook and Snapchat. Swihart convinced the alleged victim to sneak out and meet him. According to the complaint, Swihart would smoke crack-cocaine in front of the victim. Court records also allege he sexually assaulted the teen on one occasion in April 2023. Swihart is accused in court documents of ...
A Redstone Township man who sold fentanyl-laced heroin that killed one man and sickened another more than three years ago pleaded guilty Wednesday and was sentenced to prison. John Allen Stafford Jr. pleaded guilty in Fayette County Court of Common Plea to charges of drug delivery resulting in ...
Fayette County Sheriff Jim Custer started his law enforcement career in Fayette County in 1993 as a state trooper. “I’ve arrested people and put them in jail and thought that was the end of it — they do their time and get out,” Custer said. Over time, however, he started seeing the ...
A $12 million proposed community center/library project in eastern Greene County was just a dream, until county officials learned recently they’d received $5 million in federal funding. While talks and preliminary plans had been discussed by a steering committee for some time, until that ...
The Laurel Highlands girls scored points in all three phases of Wednesday’s meet to open Section 2-AAA play with a 102-47 victory over visiting Ringgold on a picture-perfect spring afternoon. Laurel Highlands’ Katie Chiado had a productive day with first-place finishes in the 100 high ...
The Section 2-AAA opener between Ringgold and Laurel Highlands on Wednesday was close throughout, but the Mustangs finished 1-2 in the pole vault at the end of the meet to secure an 83-66 home victory. Matt Schwertfeger secured 10 of the Mustangs’ points with first-place finishes in the 800 ...
Emmaleigh Noah pitched a four-hitter and Ava Livingood’s RBI single keyed a tiebreaking three-run sixth inning to lead Uniontown past visiting Albert Gallatin, 4-1, in a Section 2-AAAA softball game on Wednesday. Noah allowed one run and one walk with 10 strikeouts and helped her own cause ...
Sure, we’ve had our days of unseasonable warmth lately, but remember that stretch back in January when it was so cold we could have ducked into a meat locker to warm up? Football fans in Kansas City surely do. On its way to winning its second Super Bowl in a row and its third since 2020, the ...
Some signs of spring are so familiar that they’re a part of human culture. People often tell neighbors or co-workers about their first robin sighting, the emergence of daffodils, or spring peeper frogs calling from a wet meadow near their home. But most spring indicators are subtle; they go ...