Pennsylvania judge convicted of shooting sleeping boyfriend in the head
A Pennsylvania judge was convicted Wednesday of attempted murder and other counts for shooting her boyfriend in the head as he slept last year, officials said.
A jury convicted Sonya McKnight, a magisterial judge in Dauphin County, on one count each of attempted murder and aggravated assault, the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office said.
“There were two people in that house, and only two people in that house,” District Attorney Sean McCormack told reporters after the verdict. “And one of them, the one who was shot, said he did not shoot himself.”
The shooting happened Feb. 10, 2024, at a home in Harrisburg after the victim, Michael McCoy, tried to end his one-year relationship with McKnight, authorities said in a probable cause statement.
McCoy told detectives that he had been asleep for about an hour or two when he awoke “with massive head pain” and could not see, police have said in an affidavit.
McKnight was accused of trying to convince McCoy he had shot himself.
He survived but is now blind in one eye, the district attorney’s office said.
McKnight said she did not shoot McCoy. Her attorney, Cory Leshner, argued that the highest concentration of gunpowder residue was found on McCoy’s hands, NBC affiliate WGAL of Lancaster reported.
The jury deliberated for around two hours after two days of testimony, the station reported.
McKnight was suspended as a judge after her arrest. She was taken into custody after her bail was raised to $3 million following the verdict, and her sentencing is set for May, WGAL reported.
