Mark Stanziano: Defense Attorney Murdered Outside Law Office, Reportedly Laughed At Shooter


Mark Stanziano was just showing up to his law offices on Friday when a man approached and shot the defense attorney at least four times, killing him.

Police said the suspect, 40-year-old Clinton D. Inabnitt, came to Stanziano the night before seeking help with a problem. Police said that Stanziano declined and laughed at Inabnitt.

The next morning the shooter laid in wait as Mark Stanziano showed up to his office.

“Inabnitt approached from across the street and started firing,” Somerset Police Department spokesman Shannon Smith said. “There was no immediate dialogue between the two of them. There was no verbal confrontation. He just started firing.”

Smith did not offer details on the problem that Inabnitt brought to Stanziano, but said it was something an attorney could not help with.

Many have mourned Stanziano’s death, including local defense attorney Jeff Hoover.

“It just was numb and it makes you just stop and think about people that you represent and situations that you find yourself in sometimes,” he told The Associated Press. “Mark did a lot of very high-profile, high-publicity criminal defense cases. Anytime you do criminal defense cases sometimes you are concerned about things like that.”

Mark Stanziano was well known in the area, and served as defense attorney in some high-profile murder cases.

He was currently defending Kenneth Allen Keith, a local pastor charged with murdering three people. Stanziano was quoted often in news articles about Keith’s case, saying that there was evidence the pastor was not at the ABC Gold, Games and More pawn shop at the time of the killings.

“I think he’ll have people that can back it up,” Stanziano said. He added, “They have the wrong person in a jail cell.”

Stanziano also publicly criticized the evidence against Keith, saying that witnesses only saw a vague description that fit Keith and a grey or silver van. Keith owns a silver minivan.

“You’ll notice, they didn’t say that anybody identified him,” Stanziano said. “Nobody says it was him. And nobody says it was his car.”

It is not immediately known what will happen with the Kenneth Allen Keith case after Mark Stanziano was killed.

Share this article: Mark Stanziano: Defense Attorney Murdered Outside Law Office, Reportedly Laughed At Shooter
More from Inquisitr