Linasheri Donofrio was arrested by Pennsylvania State Police in Wilkes-Barre in February 2023.Times Reader file photo
WILKES-BARRE — Luzerne County Judge Joseph F. Sklaroski Jr. on Thursday denied Linasheri Donofrio’s request to participate in a mental health evaluation and work with a psychologist.
But the judge left the door open for Mr. D’Onofrio’s attorney, Max Rubin, to cross-examine him again in the future.
D’Onofrio, 56, was arrested in February 2023, five years after the body of his son, Shane Dee, by Wilkes-Barre police and Plains Township on charges of neglect of dependents and reckless burning. Charges were filed by police and county detectives. Onofrio was discovered by Plains Township firefighters on February 24, 2018, while fighting a fire at a cabin at Mountain Ridge Mobile Home Park.
Shane D’Onofrio, 24, has cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair. Mr. Donofrio cared for his son while they lived in a mobile home park.
Court records say Donofrio placed Shane Donofrio’s body in a cabin from early September 2017 until the morning of February 24, 2018, then moved the body to another cabin before setting it on fire.
Investigators said D’Onofrio needed to dispose of the body because of an eviction notice he received two days earlier.
During a status conference Thursday, Rubin informed Sklaroski that Donofrio had refused to meet with a psychologist or participate in a mental health evaluation.
D’Onofrio argued that he did not need a mental health evaluation because he had never been diagnosed with a mental illness.
As he had done in previous court cases, D’Onofrio accused the three men of abusing and setting fire to his son’s body.
“There is no evidence that I committed this crime,” Mr. D’Onofrio said in other statements, objecting to the recommendation that Mr. Sklarowski and Mr. Rubin remain silent.
Mr. Sklaroski denied Mr. Donofrio’s request to participate and cooperate in a mental health evaluation, but allowed Mr. Rubin to repeat the request at a later date.
The county coroner’s office could not determine the cause or manner of death for Shane D’Onofrio, but a pediatrician at Lehigh Valley Hospital previously testified that he died from “high levels of nutrition and severe neglect” at the hands of others.
