Sharpsburg man on trial on charges of killing aunt's fiance during robbery

Michael Lapaglia circled his aunt's house in Kennedy, parked down the street and told his girlfriend to leave if he wasn't back in 20 minutes.

Prosecutors can only speculate what happened next, but they believe Lapaglia entered his aunt's house through an unlocked door and shot his aunt's boyfriend, John “Jack” Parkes Jr., 59, at point-blank range before ransacking the house for money or items he could pawn.

On the way back to his Sharpsburg home, Lapaglia told his girlfriend, Melanie Gigliotti, that “it didn't go as planned.”

On Tuesday, Gigliotti, 28, now of New Kensington, took the witness stand on the first day of Lapaglia's trial in Parkes' death on July 21, 2014. She said she didn't know where her former boyfriend got the jewelry he took to a pawn shop later that day.

“I didn't ask a lot of questions,” she said.

Lapaglia, 24, is charged with homicide, burglary and robbery. His trial before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David R. Cashman began Tuesday and is expected to last about a week.

Assistant District Attorney Lisa Pellegrini began her opening statement explaining to the jury how proud Lapaglia's family was of him after he graduated high school and entered the military.

But that pride faded when Lapaglia was kicked out of the military for having synthetic marijuana, got caught stealing from his aunt and her boyfriend, and was fired as a teller from Dollar Bank for stealing money.

Lapaglia claimed there was a struggle before he shot Parkes. He also claimed he has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, since his return from active duty in Afghanistan.

“He likes to blame everybody but himself,” Pellegrini told the jury. “He claims there was a struggle, but I submit to you Jack never made it off that couch.”

Lapaglia's lawyer, Lisa Phillips, told the jury it's up to them to decide what happened and reminded them they had to be convinced of the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.

Police arrested Lapaglia when they learned he attempted to sell the jewelry he allegedly took from his aunt's home to a pawn shop in Sharpsburg, but the owner refused to buy it. He later sold damaged jewelry to a Downtown jewelry store.

Gigliotti will remain on the stand Wednesday morning for cross-examination.

Adam Brandolph is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at 412-391-0927 or abrandolph@tribweb.com.