Judge denies motion to suppress confession in Monka homicide; case set to go to trial

WILKES-BARRE — A Luzerne County judge determined that, despite Devin Malik Cunningham’s claim that he did not know what an “attorney” was when offered one, his confession to the homicide of Joseph Monka will be admissible as evidence.

But still, Cunningham plans to be the only one of four co-defendants to actually go to trial.

Cunningham, 21, is accused in the April 2019 killing of the 71-year-old Monka in his Edwardsville home with Christopher Brian Cortez, while Monka’s granddaughter, Gabriella Elizabeth Long, and her friend, Mercedes Hall, were elsewhere in the home, before the four stole $30,000 in cash. Everyone besides Cunningham has entered a guilty plea in the case.

Last week, Cunningham, joined by attorney Allyson Kacmarski, appeared before Luzerne County Judge William H. Amesbury asking to have his confession to the homicide suppressed, claiming that he did not understand the meaning of the word “attorney” when offered one.

Assistant District Attorney Jarrett Ferentino, though, said the transcript of the interview shows that Pennsylvania State Trooper Edward Urban immediately explained that an attorney was a lawyer, but Cunningham still gave his confession without an attorney present.

Amesbury initially said he planned to issue an order in the case on Sept. 29, but instead called counsel before him on Wednesday to say that he had determined he would deny Kacmarski’s motion in the case.

Amesbury said the court found no evidence that Cunningham had been coerced into making his confession, and that his Constitutional rights had not been violated. As such, Amesbury ruled that the confession he made to troopers would be admissible in the case.

Cunningham is currently set to go to trial starting on Oct. 7, but after Amesbury determined his confession would be admissible, Kacmarski asked Cunningham on the record if he still planned to go to trial.

Kacmarski reminded Cunningham that he is facing life in prison if found guilty at trial, while prosecutors had offered him a sentence of 35 to 80 years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea — an offer that Ferentino said on Wednesday would be shortly expiring if he did not take it — but Cunningham still insists on bringing the case against him to trial.

Jury selection begins in just less than two weeks in what is shaping up to be the county’s first homicide trial since the closure of courts due to COVID-19 earlier this year.