Royersford man sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping and killing his coworker in 2021

It took a Bucks County jury a half-hour on Monday to convict a Royersford man of first-degree murder for kidnapping, robbing, and killing his coworker in October 2021.

Michael Stark, 50, was sentenced afterward to life in prison for the death of Matthew Branning, whom he had befriended while working at Enchlor Inc., a company in Silverdale that manufactures and assembles water-treatment systems for countries outside the U.S.

Deputy District Attorney Matthew Lannetti told jurors during Stark’s five-day trial that the case was similar to a puzzle.

“There was not one smoking gun, but a lot of pieces of evidence that when you put them together and step back, there was no argument what happened,” he said.

Stark’s attorney, Craig Penglase, did not return a request for comment.

The two men were last seen working together Oct. 15, 2021, according to evidence presented at trial. Later that night, a security camera at a local BB&T Bank branch recorded Branning, 50, withdrawing $500 from an ATM, with another person visible in the backseat.

Lannetti said that person was Stark, who he said had become “desperate” after losing a second job and struggling with a negative bank balance. Stark, the prosecutor said, had forced Branning to withdraw the money. Stark’s DNA was later found on the car’s steering wheel.

“I think at that point, he decided there was no going back, and he killed Matthew,” Lannetti said. “The evidence is overwhelming that that’s what happened.”

Cell-phone data from Branning’s phone, as well as toll information, showed his 2002 Lexus sedan traveling into New Jersey and to Cape May. That was the last trace of Branning that investigators found.

The next day, on Oct. 16, Branning’s sister filed a missing-persons report with the Perkasie Borough Police Department. She was concerned that her brother had not returned home from work the previous day, according to court records.

Investigators traced Branning’s Lexus on a path to New Jersey. They learned that his bank account was used at a gas station in Somers Point at 7:05 p.m. later that day.

Branning and Stark’s cell phones were tracked to a Wawa in Cape May two hours later, where Stark was seen on surveillance footage making a purchase at 9:27 p.m. Branning was not seen in that footage.

Stark then drove north and then west on the Atlantic City Expressway. He wasn’t seen again until Nov. 13, 2021, when he was spotted at a Michigan pawn shop.

Branning’s Lexus was recovered in Falls Church, Va., in December 2021.

Stark was arrested in April 2022 in Wayne County, Mich., on a warrant out of Monroe County, about two hours north of Philadelphia, for failing to show up in court on charges of resisting arrest and drug possession.

Branning’s body was later found in a gully in Maryland, but he was not identified until May 2023, two months after Stark was charged with his murder.

Lannetti, the prosecutor, said Stark’s family was happy with verdict but still struggles with a “loss that will never be filled.”

“By all accounts, Matthew was a generous, kind human being, who would’ve done anything for anyone, including, his sisters said, the defendant.”