Less than an hour before police would discover the bludgeoned body of his roommate in their Frackville home, Thomas John Petrousky removed his dentures and took off his jacket before punching his neighbor James Dellock in the face, kicking him in the back and threatening to shoot his dogs in the head.

It was when police took Petrousky's friendly pit bull back to the 256 S. Wylam St. house he shared with David R. Halaburda that they discovered Halaburda's cold, stiff body in a pool of blood in the living room, buried under furniture, magazines and other household items, and with a mounted deer head deliberately placed with its nose to his.The cause of Halaburda's death was blunt-force injuries, likely from fists and a length of board; the manner, homicide. A blood screen revealed the presence of bath salts in his blood, a state police Forensic Service Unit trooper testified Friday.After listening to almost six hours of testimony, District Judge Christina E. Hale of West Mahanoy Township found sufficient evidence to send first-degree murder, criminal homicide, third-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and related charges against Petrousky to Schuylkill County court.Petrousky killed Halaburda, repeatedly hitting him in the head and neck with his fists, on the morning of April 28, 2014, police say.Petrousky, 54, who was already serving one to three years in the state prison at Mahanoy for attacking Dellock, was charged by West Mahanoy Police Chief Shawn Tray on Jan. 22.The hearing was held in the county courthouse in Pottsville for security reasons.First Assistant District Attorney Maria Casey presented the evidence. Petrousky was defended by Pottsville attorney Michael Stine.Witnesses described Halaburda as a peaceful man who kept to himself. He had lived on Wylam Street for years; his mother had owned a bar up the street. Halaburda married and moved to Barnesville, but, single again, moved back to Wylam about a dozen years ago.The day beforeOn April 27, Dellock saw Petrousky, who had once asked him to help fix a television set, on the porch of the house Petrousky and Halaburda shared, yelling at Halaburda, who was cowering. The lambasting went on for at least a half-hour, Dellock testified."He kept calling (Halaburda) a rat," Dellock's girlfriend, Tabitha McCormick, said.Sheldon J. Buscavage and his girlfriend Georgine Fogarty had been good friends with their neighbor Halaburda for years. Buscavage and Halaburda went fishing, watched television, cracked a few cold ones, and ate dinners prepared by Fogarty. When Halaburda had a beagle, they'd walk their dogs together.But Buscavage and Fogarty had noticed changes in Halaburda in the months leading up to his murder.He seemed disoriented and fearful, and once asked Fogarty that "if anything happens to me, tell everyone I was a good guy."Halaburda also mentioned that Petrousky had stopped paying his $250 share of household expenses.When Halaburda visited, he would stay "until Tom (Petrousky) fell asleep, then he could go home. He didn't want to wake Tom," Fogarty testified.At about 5 p.m. April 27, Halaburda came up onto Buscavage's porch. Buscavage testified he heard Petrousky yell, "Get off that porch you (expletive)."Halaburda pulled open the front door and ran in, with Petrousky right behind him. Buscavage ordered Petrousky off his property.Halaburda's lips were swollen, and he said Petrousky had hit him.It wasn't the first time, Buscavage testified.He called police, and Frackville state trooper Joseph J. Aponick came out to talk to Halaburda and Petrousky, and cited Petrousky for harassment.Shortly afterward, Buscavage left for work, and Fogarty took Halaburda to buy a couple of six-packs of beer, and then he left, walking up the street, not toward his house."That's the last time I saw him," Fogarty said.At about 10 that night, neighbor Ted Buriak saw Petrousky from his bedroom window, "ranting, raging and screaming at the world."At about 11:30 p.m., Joseph Hahn, a former police officer, was rebuilding a Jeep Wrangler in his father's garage on Line Street. The garage faced the house where Petrousky, who was on probation for an earlier crime, had moved in with Halaburda the previous fall.Hahn knew Petrousky from the neighborhood; Petrousky had occasionally stopped by the garage to chat.Hahn saw Petrousky, standing in the open back door of Halaburda's house, mumbling, his voice rising with excitement, then falling back to a mumble again. Petrousky occasionally stepped out onto the porch, swaying back and forth, still talking nonstop, for at least 3 hours, to no one.At about 2 a.m., Hahn called police to let them know what was going on.Bloody MondayAt 7:50 the next morning, April 28, Dellock was awakened by Petrousky, standing in the street, screaming. Dellock, thinking that one of his dogs had jumped the fence around their yard, went out onto his front porch. The dogs were still in the yard.Petrousky, with his own dog about 20 yards up the street, was "yelling that he was going to kill my dogs," Dellock testified.Dellock noticed that Petrousky's hands were swollen and scraped. There was blood on his sweatshirt sleeves. His pupils, Dellock testified, were "huge and black.""He was very aggressive, and not in a normal state of mind," he said.Petrousky screamed that Dellock's house was his house, and that Dellock would have to leave.Petrousky removed his dentures and took off his jacket, Dellock said. He put them and the green Mardi Gras beads he was carrying on Dellock's front porch, stepped up and punched him in the face, Then he swung a kick at Dellock's back.After that, he ripped Dellock's mailbox off the fence and threw it in the street."I'll shove your (expletive) in it," Dellock heard him scream.Another neighbor, Ted Buriak, came over to try to calm Petrousky.Petrousky snatched the man's glasses off his face and told him he would kill him. Then he gave Buriak back his glasses."I don't think Mr. Petrousky was altogether there at the time," he testified.Buriak, too, noticed how swollen Petrousky's hands were."He looked like he was wearing a big, thick glove," he testified.He spoke quietly to Petrousky, whom he said calmed down a bit. But when West Mahanoy Township patrolman Christopher Hand arrived a few minutes after 8 a.m., Petrousky became agitated, ignoring the officer's requests to hold still. Hand at first had Petrousky place his hands on the hood of the patrol car, then was finally forced to put him on the ground, where Petrousky still yelled and squirmed.He noticed blood on Petrousky's sweatshirt and shoes.Patrolman Ray Tonkinson arrived within several minutes, and cuffed Petrousky and put him in the back of his cruiser. He took him to the Shenandoah police station, which has a holding cell.Tonkinson said that Petrousky was not coherent enough to be arraigned after being taken into custody on the morning of April 28, and was taken to a hospital.There, Police Chief Shawn Tray testified, Petrousky had to be restrained and sedated.Accompanied by Buscavage, Hand took Petrousky's dog to the house. But the front door was locked, so Hand went to the back.He saw a body, with things piled on top of it. He went back out and called for backup. The county SPCA took Petrousky's dog. Deputy coroner Andrew Szczyglak pronounced Halaburda dead at 8:45 a.m. Fingerprints helped identify his body.The investigationAt the Shenandoah station, Tonkinson took Petrousky's bloody clothes and shoes, which were sent to the state police crime lab in Bethlehem, where serologist and blood spatter expert Beverly Beshore-Strohn said she took samples and sent blood to another lab for DNA testing. The results are not yet available.She testified about the spatter on Petrousky's clothes."A fist can supply enough force to produce a spatter stain," she said.State police Forensic Services Unit CSI Trooper Robert Wessner testified at length about Halaburda's body and the chaotic state of the room it was found face down in.The mounted deer head, its nose to Halaburda's, had blood on its antlers transferred from a hand, he said. A PPL training certificate with Halaburda's name on it was crumpled and appeared to have been wiped on Halaburda's face.A plush star-shaped toy was positioned at Halaburda's mouth.There were two pools of blood, one under Halaburda's head and another some distance away. There were no drag marks, and blood spatter indicated Halaburda had been beaten while on the floor.Blood had been spattered on the walls, furniture and ceiling.The 33-inch-long board was saturated with blood 14 inches from the top down. Blood on the rug indicated it had been held upright while resting on the floor in three places."We believe that was one of the objects used to bludgeon the victim," Wessner said.A packed suitcase on a love seat contained a bloody pair of jeans, and Petrousky's bloodstained ID card was on a cabinet.Police found syringes and diabetic supplies, but no illegal drugs in the house, he said.Tray testified about the autopsy results, and said a toxicology screen indicated the presence of bath salts in Halaburda's blood.