Pocono News Section

Triple murder suspect facing new charges

Triple murder suspect facing new charges - Friday, August 15, 2008 at 5:57PM EST

Friday, Aug 15, 2008 @ 05:57pm EST

New charges tonight against the man police say murdered three people in Scranton .

Police say Randall Rushing beat and stabbed Leslie Collier, Justin Berrios, and Dustin Hintz to death.

Randall Rushing is now charged with three separate counts of homicide.

He's also charged with kidnapping and robbing his alleged victims.

The new charges "could" make him eligible for the death penalty.

Randall Rushing had his formal arraignment inside the Lackawanna County prison.

He was arraigned on one count of homicide, but the Lackawanna district attorney filed more charges.

District attorney Andrew Jarbola wouldn't say whether or not he was seeking the death penalty or not Friday.

Jarbola says, “That won't be determined until after the preliminary whether or not we'll seek the death penalty. But I've been in contact with the family and let them know what my intentions are but we're not going to announce that publicly until after the preliminary hearing."

New charges say he also robbed and kidnapped them.

Rushing now faces murder, kidnapping, and robbery charges for each of his three alleged victims.

He also allegedly tied up Samantha Hintz, and woman he had an on and off relationship with.

Cynthia Collier, Hintz's mother, was also allegedly handcuffed by Rushing.

Police say rushing stole credit cars, money, and jewelry from his victims.

Jarbola says he's let them know if he'll seek the death penalty or not.

"We've been in contact withthe victims in the case. We've talked to them on a couple of occasions and obviously they're doing as well as to be expected," says Jarbola.

District attorney Jarbola will make his announcement at Rushing's preliminary hearing.

That's set for September 19th in Lackawanna County court.