Murder charges filed in Plains Twp hit-and-run | State

A Wilkes-Barre man who previously made headlines for two violent attacks was charged Monday with intentionally running over and killing a man over the weekend in Plains Twp., police said.

Louis Max Weinbrecht, 56, is suspected of being the driver who struck and killed the victim around 11:25 p.m. Friday near Lou's Auto Repair at 510 N. Main St. in Plains Twp., Police Chief Dale Binker said.

An autopsy conducted Monday morning found that 47-year-old Mark Svadeba died from multiple traumatic injuries. The cause of death was determined to be homicide, said Coroner Jill Matthews.

Binker said police filed manslaughter charges against Weinbrecht on Monday afternoon.

Weinbrecht, whose name is also spelled Weihbrecht in court documents, fled the scene of the accident and the vehicle was found and impounded in Wilkes-Barre, he said, noting that the crash was not an accident and that police are treating the case as a homicide investigation.

“He used the vehicle as a weapon,” Binker said. “We're treating it as a homicide, not a hit-and-run.”

According to a search warrant signed by District Judge Joseph D. Spagnuolo Jr., Weinbrecht struck the motorcyclist Svadeba and was found lying on the road with serious injuries.

Svadeba was taken to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, where he died.

Two witnesses to the accident said they saw Weinbrecht deliberately hit and run over Svadeba after a commotion outside, according to the arrest warrant application.

Binker said Weinbrecht and Svadeba “knew each other from the past.”

Less than two hours after the crash, Weinbrecht's vehicle, a 2007 Chevrolet Silverado, was found unattended near the intersection of West Academy Street and Pickering Street in Wilkes-Barre. The truck had damage to the front of the truck, police said.

The search warrant authorized police to search the truck for evidence related to the accident.

Weinbrecht turned himself in Saturday on an arrest warrant for allegedly violating a protection order, Binker said. He was being held at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for the alleged violation.

It was expected that Weinbrecht would go to prison after being charged with manslaughter and that he would not be released on bail.

Township police were assisted in the investigation by the Luzerne County District Attorney's Office and a state police accident reconstruction unit.

Weinbrecht had previously made headlines because of two violent attacks he was accused of.

In July 2023, he was sentenced to two months to two years in the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. for simple assault because he had beaten a woman who refused to have sexual intercourse with him.

Prosecutors said Weinbrecht woke the woman up as she slept on his couch and demanded sex. When she refused, Weinbrecht pulled her off the couch and punched and kicked the woman in the face before brandishing a knife and threatening to kill her, prosecutors said.

Weinbrecht was also previously accused of striking a man with a hammer during an argument in a tool cart outside Good Guys Automotive at 151 N. Diamond St. on the afternoon of August 14, 2018.

In this case, he was tried and acquitted of all charges in June 2019.