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Alleged gunman in Wilkes-Barre homicide turns himself in

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WILKES-BARRE TWP. &mdash; It was the trial that wasn&rsquo;t meant to be; only minutes before a jury was to be selected in the case against him, Devin Malik Cunningham pleaded guilty in the April 2019 murder of Joseph Monka.
				Cunningham, 21, was the final one of the original four defendants in Monka&rsquo;s death to enter a guilty plea in the case. Cunningham was accused of killing the 71-year-old Monka in his Edwardsville home with Christopher Brian Cortez, while Monka&rsquo;s granddaughter, Gabriella Elizabeth Long, and her friend, Mercedes Hall, before stealing $30,000 in cash.
				Cunningham was the last of the group to be arrested, being found several days later at his mother&rsquo;s Fairfax, Va., home.
				Cunningham&rsquo;s trial was set to begin on Wednesday with jury selection, and was going to be the first trial to be held at the Mohegan Sun Arena due to social distancing requirements as a result of the pandemic, but he instead entered a guilty plea on a count of third degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder while potential jurors were being interviewed in the case.
				The guilty plea comes after Cunningham made a failed attempt to have a confession made to Pennsylvania State Troopers shortly after his arrest blocked from court testimony. While Cunningham claimed the troopers violated his rights in securing the confession, claiming it was not adequately explained to him what an &ldquo;attorney&rdquo; was.
				Luzerne County Judge William H. Amesbury III rejected the motion, instead accepting prosecutors&rsquo; assertions that the system had been adequately explained.
				On Wednesday, after Cunningham&rsquo;s guilty plea, other charges, some stemming from the theft of Monka&rsquo;s cash and his vehicle, were dropped in exchange for the plea deal.
				Amesbury immediately sentenced Cunningham to spend between 40 and 80 years in prison, a longer sentence than those given to Cortez and Long, who were given sentences of 35 to 80 years. Hall still awaits sentencing, as her sentence depended upon her willingness to testify against any of her co-defendants, although this ultimately did not happen.
				Jessica Cartman, Monka&rsquo;s daughter and Long&rsquo;s mother, spoke tearfully in an ad hoc courtroom in the basement of the arena when given the opportunity by Amesbury.
				&ldquo;I miss him so much; he was one of my best friends,&rdquo; Cartman said. &ldquo;What happened to him was not right, it was not fair. He didn&rsquo;t deserve this.
				&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard, because instead of calling my father on the phone, I talk to a box on my dresser, or ashes around my neck,&rdquo; she went on.
				Cunningham will received credit for 532 days time served.
				After the plea deal was finalized, Assistant District Attorney Jarrett Ferentino said that he believes that the punishment Cunningham received was &ldquo;fair,&rdquo; and that Cunningham received a longer sentence than the other co-defendants as Cunningham took longer to come to the point of a guilty plea.

Cunningham enters guilty plea in Monka homicide moments before jury selected