A 34-year-old Yates County resident has been formally indicted on murder charges in connection with the fatal stabbing of an elderly Rochester man inside his apartment earlier this summer, authorities announced following the unsealing of court documents.
The Monroe County grand jury indictment against Jonathan Shearin of Dundee was officially unsealed in Monroe County Court on Monday, September 14. Shearin faces a charge of second-degree murder in the violent death of 77-year-old Marc Stekloff, which occurred in early July.
During his arraignment before the court, Shearin entered a plea of not guilty to the murder charge. A judge ordered him remanded to the Monroe County Jail, where he is currently being held without the possibility of bail as legal proceedings against him move forward.
The filing of charges comes more than two months after emergency personnel first discovered the victim's body. Rochester Police Department officers were dispatched on July 3 to an apartment building located at 149 North Union Street after receiving an urgent request to check on a resident's welfare.
According to Rochester Police Capt. Frank Umbrino, the welfare check was initiated when a friend of Stekloff grew alarmed after the 77-year-old repeatedly failed to answer telephone calls. The concerned acquaintance went directly to the residence before contacting emergency dispatchers to report that someone inside Apartment 1 appeared to be deceased.
Upon entering the residence, responding officers discovered Stekloff, who lived alone in the apartment, dead at the scene. Capt. Umbrino stated that the victim was clearly deceased and had sustained catastrophic injuries, having been stabbed more than three dozen times in a violent assault.
Investigators piecing together the final moments of the victim's life determined that Stekloff was last seen alive on July 1. On that day, Stekloff had walked outside to the curb to retrieve his household garbage cans, a routine chore that brought him into contact with a passerby.
Detectives noted that during this errand, Stekloff had a brief, chance encounter and engaged in a friendly exchange with an individual walking in the immediate area. Authorities confirmed that this brief conversation outside the North Union Street residence was the final confirmed sighting of Stekloff alive.
Law enforcement officials allege that shortly after this casual interaction took place, Shearin unlawfully entered Stekloff's apartment. Once inside the residence, Shearin is accused of launching a brutal and sustained physical attack, stabbing the elderly homeowner repeatedly.
Following the fatal stabbing, the assailant reportedly searched the premises, located Stekloff's car keys, and stole the victim's vehicle, which had been parked directly behind the North Union Street apartment building, before fleeing the area.
The victim's stolen automobile remained missing for several days before being located by authorities on July 4. Officers discovered the abandoned car parked in a lot along Hudson Avenue in Rochester.
Investigators utilized a combination of private security cameras and municipal surveillance systems throughout the surrounding area to trace the stolen vehicle's movements. Footage gathered during the comprehensive review allowed detectives to successfully identify Shearin as the primary suspect in both the vehicle theft and the homicide.
Even before the murder indictment was secured in Monroe County, Shearin had already been taken into police custody on unrelated charges in a neighboring jurisdiction. On July 2, merely one day after Stekloff was killed, authorities in Wayne County apprehended Shearin following a string of violent crimes.
In Wayne County, Shearin was arrested and accused of carrying out three separate home invasion robberies that resulted in the physical assault of six elderly victims. Rochester police investigators believe Shearin fled directly to Wayne County immediately following the homicide on North Union Street.
Shearin had remained incarcerated at the Wayne County Jail since his July 2 apprehension while Rochester homicide detectives continued their investigation into Stekloff's death, eventually presenting their findings to the Monroe County grand jury.
Records provided by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision indicate that Shearin is classified as a predicate felon who was under active parole supervision at the time of the alleged offenses. His prior criminal history includes convictions for grand larceny, burglary, and attempted burglary spanning Yates and Schuyler counties.
According to state correctional records, Shearin had been in and out of the New York state prison system since October 2016. He had completed his previous term of incarceration and was released from state custody in April 2026, just three months prior to the North Union Street homicide.
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