Jeremy D.P. Cantolina, a 38-year-old White/Caucasian male from Snow Shoe, Pennsylvania, died on August 11, 2017, after he was shot in the driveway of his home on Moshannon Street. Police and emergency responders were called that morning and found him unconscious while Snow Shoe Fire and EMS personnel were trying to save him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. His obituary described him as a husband, father of five children, and a mechanic employed at Leigh Hanson.
The investigation quickly focused on Matthew Robert Dreibelbis, a Bellefonte-area man who had been involved in a long sexual relationship with Cantolina's wife. Police said that relationship had lasted about three and a half years, and testimony later indicated it had resulted in a child born in 2015. Investigators alleged that Dreibelbis had made threats about Cantolina during conversations with her, and that he admitted after questioning that he shot Cantolina as Cantolina was trying to leave for work.
The shooting was described by prosecutors as an early-morning ambush driven by jealousy, resentment, and possession rather than love. At trial, the prosecution said Dreibelbis drove to Snow Shoe around 4:00 a.m., parked near Clarence Archery, and walked to Cantolina's driveway. Prosecutors told jurors that Cantolina and his wife were raising four children together, including one fathered by Dreibelbis, and argued that Dreibelbis hated that Cantolina was raising the child as part of his family. A witness who had been sleeping in a vehicle nearby described waking to sounds like pops and mumbling, while jurors were shown evidence from the scene, the bullet, and the. 38-caliber Comanche revolver alleged to have been used.
Dreibelbis was arrested and held without bail. Early reports listed charges including murder, aggravated assault, and possessing instruments of crime; some reports described the murder charges as first- and second-degree murder, while others described first- and third-degree murder. By the time the case reached trial, the central allegation was that Dreibelbis used a revolver to shoot Cantolina in the head. A state police trooper testified that Dreibelbis had said he confronted Cantolina in the driveway, fired one shot to scare him, then fired a second round that killed him.
Dreibelbis' defense challenged the prosecution's case, arguing during opening statements that there was no reliable physical, technical, medical, or scientific proof that he killed Cantolina, and that witnesses had changed or embellished their stories over time. The prosecution countered with firearm and toolmark evidence. At trial, a Pennsylvania State Police firearm examiner testified that ballistic comparison linked the bullet recovered from Cantolina's skull to Dreibelbis' revolver.
On September 26, 2018, a Centre County jury convicted Dreibelbis of first-degree murder. On October 3, 2018, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He later appealed, challenging the trial court's decision to accept the state police firearm examiner as an expert, but the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the judgment of sentence in 2022, leaving the conviction and punishment in place.
