Former Cranberry Twp man drops murder, rape conviction relief petition
A former Cranberry Township resident who pleaded guilty to killing a University of Pittsburgh student in her apartment in 2017 and raping a teenage Allegheny County girl days before the murder has withdrawn his petitions for post-conviction relief in both cases.
Matthew Darby, 26, a Seneca Valley graduate who last lived in Greensburg, on Wednesday withdrew the post-conviction relief petitions he filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.
He pleaded guilty to charges in both cases in October 2018. He was sentenced to serve life in prison for the first-degree murder charge. The rape charge was withdrawn, and he pleaded guilty to two counts of simple assault. He was sentenced to two to four years in prison in that case.
Darby used a claw hammer and two knives Oct. 8, 2017, to kill 20-year-old Alina Sheykhet, his ex-girlfriend, in her off-campus apartment. He fled afterward and was captured in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Five days before that, he allegedly raped a 17-year-old girl in Elizabeth Township.
