Matthew Darby to be tried for homicide of Pitt student Alina Sheykhet

Rebecca Kubiczki told a packed Pittsburgh courtroom Friday about how she awoke in her Oakland home Oct. 8 to the sound of pounding, crashing and, finally, screaming.

The screams came from the parents of her roommate and friend, 20-year-old Alina Sheykhet. They'd planned to go to a charity walk that morning, and when Sheykhet didn't answer her parents' calls or the knocks on her door that morning, her father broke it down.

Inside, investigators would testify, Sheykhet was dead. She had been beaten and stabbed to death. Prosecutors on Friday made their case for going to trial against Matthew Darby, Sheykhet's ex-boyfriend — a man she accused in a protection from abuse documents of being physically abusive and prone to fits of jealousy.

The nearly four-hour preliminary hearing in front of Magisterial District Judge Craig Stevens included testimony from Kubiczki, the landlord for the Cable Place home where Sheykhet, a University of Pittsburgh student, was killed; Darby's Uber driver the day of the killing; and a number of officers and detectives.

The judge held all charges against Darby for trial, including charges of homicide, flight, burglary, theft, trespassing and possessing an instrument of crime.

Sheykhet's on-again, off-again relationship with Darby was off last fall – for good, testified Kubiczki, who'd lived with Sheykhet for three years at Pitt's Greensburg campus as well as Oakland's main campus. Kubiczki was there Sept. 20 when Darby broke into the home that she and Sheykhet shared with three others.

The next day was when Sheykhet sought a PFA against Darby, formerly a Pitt-Greensburg student.

"She said, 'I can't take it anymore,'" Kubiczki said.

Kubiczki's boyfriend awoke with her the morning of Sheykhet's killing. He ran to Sheykhet's room when her parents began screaming, and then ran back to Kubiczki.

"He wouldn't let me in her room no matter what," she said.

Sheykhet's friends, many of them Pitt students, packed the courtroom along with her family. Many brought signs promoting domestic violence awareness and Alina's Law – a bill working its way through the state Legislature that would allow judges to require electronic tracking of domestic abusers deemed to pose a high risk.

Prosecutors introduced evidence that Darby had spent time on the Duquesne University campus the night of Oct. 7 and into the morning hours of Oct. 8, where he had an interaction with university police Officer Raymond Marr. Darby asked directions to Brottier Hall, Marr said. Security cameras captured Darby at various points across campus, including in the student union, which Marr allowed Darby to enter in order to charge his cellphone. He said Darby acted nervous and smelled vaguely of alcohol.

One photo introduced by prosecutors shows a man they say is Darby wearing a striped shirt with an embroidered Miller beer logo on it standing in an elevator on campus that night.

That shirt was among Darby's possessions when he was arrested days later, police said.

Prosecutors say evidence they introduced Friday, Jan. 19, 2018, shows Matthew Darby on an elevator at Duquesne University in the hours before police say he killed his ex-girlfriend, Alina Sheykhet, in her Oakland home.

Darby's attorney, David Shrager, disputes that the footage shows Darby.

Hours later, shortly after 4 a.m., Darby called for an Uber, which took him from Brottier Hall to a street adjacent to Sheykhet's home, the driver testified. Shrager said anyone using Darby's Uber account could have been the passenger.

Darby later fled the Pittsburgh area but police arrested him in Myrtle Beach, S.C., three days after Sheykhet's death.

A photo taken by Pittsburgh homicide detectives shows two knives in a sewer grate in Oakland. The knives were collected as evidence, and suspect Matthew Darby is accused of tossing the knives as he left the home of his ex-girlfriend, where police say he stabbed and beat her to death. The photo was introduced as evidence at Darby's preliminary hearing Friday, Jan. 19, 2018.

Investigators collected surveillance footage they said shows Darby tossing items into a sewer near Semple Street near Sheykhet's place. Pittsburgh police homicide Det. Edward Fallert said he and other officers found two knives and a hammer in the same sewer grate, the latter of which appeared to have hair and skin stuck to the claw portion.

Forensic tests have not yet been completed on the knives and hammer — the suspected murder weapons.

Detectives recovered this hammer from a sewer grate near Cable Place in Oakland. Police accused Matthew Darby of tossing the hammer as he left the home of his ex-girlfriend, where authorities said he stabbed and beat her to death. The photo was introduced as evidence at Darby's preliminary hearing Friday, Jan. 19, 2018.

"She didn't deserve this," said Rachel Byrge, who attended Montour High School with Sheykhet and was one of many friends who turned out to support Sheykhet and her family. "We're here to fight with Alina — for Alina — and make sure that people remember her and ... know that she's bigger than this."

Friends wore purple shirts with Sheykhet's photo on them with the words "Our Russian Princess" written in Russian. The backs said, "Love shouldn't hurt."

Shrager said that with a low threshold for evidence in preliminary hearings, he was not surprised by the outcome.

"We have a lot of discovery we have to do, a lot of evidence gathering we have to do," he said. "We're going to get to tell our side of the story at a later time."

He maintained Darby's innocence.

"There is no forensic evidence, there is no testimonial evidence," he said. "All we have is a lot of circumstantial evidence, and that provides a 'maybe.'"

Megan Guza is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 412-380-8519, mguza@tribweb.com or via Twitter @meganguzaTrib.