Prosecutors Request to Combine Moon Township Carjacking Case, Stowe Assaults

A McKees Rocks man said he was on cocaine and had not taken medication prescribed for Borderline personality disorder and manic depression when he was accused in January of a in Moon and Stowe townships.

Joseph Manna, 28, is charged with two counts each of receiving stolen property, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and reckless driving; three counts of reckless endangerment and one count each of robbery and criminal mischief in the attacks and a carjacking Jan. 15 in Moon.

Manna appeared Monday before Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Judge Joseph K. Williams III. Manna, who has pleaded not guilty, is scheduled to face a jury trial.

Prosecutors are asking to join and try the Moon Township case with another stemming from a home invasion and stabbing Jan. 15 in Stowe. Manna’s public defender has filed a motion seeking to bar prosecutors from presenting statements Manna made to police after his arrest for those incidents.

Manna's trial is slated to begin after Williams rules on the motions. 

said Manna rammed into the cars of two women driving on Spring Run and Brodhead roads before dragging a third woman from her car on Purdy Road. Police said he stole that car and fled to , where he later was found in a homeless shelter. 

Manna also is accused of breaking into a home on Broadway Avenue in Stowe earlier that morning, stabbing a man and stealing his black Ford F-150 truck. Prosecutors said Manna broke into that home after the couple who lived there accused him of stealing a computer.

Manna is charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, burglary, criminal trespass, theft  and reckless endangerment in that incident.

In court Monday, Manna told Williams he neglected to take numerous medications for treatment of Borderline personality disorder and manic depression for more than 10 days prior to the attacks. He said he'd also recently used cocaine.

He said he was unable to recall basic details about the days surrounding the attacks, and he said at the time of his arrest he did not remember the specific details or severity of the crimes he's charged with committing.  

A Morgantown Police officer testified that Manna, who sought medical treatment for a hand laceration at West Virginia University's Ruby Memorial Hospital, at first identified himself as Brian Flannagan before being taken into custody.

Manna said he went to the Stowe Township home at about 4 a.m. Jan. 15 to drive his "buddy to the methadone clinic.” He said someone assaulted in the home, leaving him disoriented before he took the truck and drove it to Moon. He said he had been hospitalized for a psychiatric condition days before the attack.

Manna has undergone a psychiatric evaluation in the Allegheny County Jail, where he has been held since his extradition from West Virginia. 

"Clearly there are mental health issues, but are they [compounded] by drug use?" Williams said. "Methadone and cocaine to a manic depressive, bipolar, borderline personality: That's a pretty significant concoction." 

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