Police testify suspect lied to buy fatal gun
Woman charged with role in death of state trooper
By HOWARD FRANK
Pocono Record Writer / January 16, 2010
TOBYHANNA — The woman charged with buying the gun used to kill Pennsylvania State Trooper Joshua Miller falsified her address to make the purchase, police alleged at her preliminary hearing Thursday.
Emily Gross, 24, of Westfield, N.J., is accused of purchasing the firearm and leaving it with Daniel Autenrieth, who was prohibited from possessing a firearm under the terms of a protection from abuse order.
On June 7, Autenrieth kidnapped his 9-year-old son from his estranged wife and set off on a 40-mile car chase with police from Nazareth to Tobyhanna, where his car was forced off the road. During the subsequent shootout, Autenrieth killed Miller and wounded Trooper Robert Lombardo. Police returned fire and killed Autenrieth. The boy was unharmed.
After Thursday’s hearing, charges were held over for county court, where Gross faces two counts of criminal conspiracy to carry a firearm without a license, two counts of criminal conspiracy with a person not allowed to possess a firearm, and one count of giving or lending a prohibited firearm.
Pennsylvania State Trooper Robert Sebastianelli of the Swiftwater barracks testified that Gross told him she tried buying a gun in New Jersey, where she lived with her family, but learned it would take six months to get the permit. She admitted to Sebastianelli that Autenrieth told her she could get one immediately in Pennsylvania, according to the trooper’s testimony.
Family members, including the slain trooper’s sisters, brother, mother and stepmother filled the two rows of the small courtroom in Coolbaugh Township where the hearing was held. They wept as the trooper and a Northampton County deputy sheriff testified.
