Matthew Darby pleads guilty to assault in Indiana Co. case
Matthew Darby pleaded guilty in Indiana County on Thursday to one count of aggravated assault in connection with a 2017 incident involving an ex-girlfriend.
The plea comes a day after he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other charges relating to the October 2017 murder of another ex-girlfriend, University of Pittsburgh student Alina Sheykhet, 20.
Darby’s murder plea took the death penalty off the table but assured him a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The Indiana County charges stemmed from a February 2017 incident in which Darby reached out to a former girlfriend – an Indiana University of Pennsylvania student – saying he wanted to apologize, according to the criminal complaint filed at the time. The woman told police that Darby called her 33 times over the course of 2 ½ hours.
She met him to talk and alleged that Darby raped her, police said.
Darby, 22, of Hempfield pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault and, in exchange, prosecutors dropped charges of rape, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault and indecent assault. A similar deal was struck Wednesday in Allegheny County in which Darby pleaded guilty to two counts of simple assault in exchange for charges of rape, sexual assault, unlawful contact with minors and corruption of minors being dropped.
Two days closed out four open cases against Darby: the Indiana County assault case; a trespassing charge levied when he broke into Sheykhet’s Oakland apartment two weeks before he killed her; the homicide and related charges; and charges relating to the assault of a 17-year-old Elizabeth Township girl only days before Sheykhet’s murder.
One case remains pending – four counts of aggravated assault and harassment relating to his alleged outburst and assault of several Allegheny County Jail guards during his intake in November following his extradition from South Carolina.
“During the property exchange, Darby stated to Officer James McVeigh that he was going to ‘(expletive) him up’ and he was a ‘$30,000-a-year (expletive),’ ” according to the criminal complaint.
When ordered to strip out of his street clothes, Darby allegedly made a remark, threw his T-shirt at the officer and lunged at him, according to the complaint. Three other officers responded, and Darby was subdued with a Taser.
A non-jury trial for those charges is scheduled for Jan. 7.
