Former Legion building was site of tragic murder
The former American Legion building in Lyndora being demolished this week once was a store and even a tattoo parlor, according to Dave Zarnick, president of the Butler Township Board of Commissioners.
Though Zarnick said he doesn’t recall when the building was built, he does remember its history.
“There was a murder down there,” he said. “I remember that happening, I was on the (Butler Township) commissioners at the time.”
As the building at 100 Bessemer Ave. is demolished, officials recalled the long murder investigation that took place inside the former Lyndora Tattoo Parlor.
On Christmas Eve 2008, 24-year-old Shawn Murphey walked into the shop to receive a tattoo. He was shot and killed by shop owner Kevin Campbell, according to reports.
The killing remained unsolved for weeks until Campbell was charged with first-degree murder in April 2010.
“Cause of death was a gunshot wound to the back of the head,” Lt. Matt Pearson of Butler Township police, said Thursday.
Murphey’s body was found in the building’s basement on Jan. 25, 2009. Campbell kept the shop in order until the body was uncovered by the building owner at the time, Leonard Walkowiak.
Investigators believe robbery was the motive behind the killing. Police said they believed Campbell stole between $200 and $2,000 from Murphey and shot him point-blank with a .357-caliber revolver.
Pearson said Campbell was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in October 2011.
Campbell, who is now 47, remains imprisoned in the state correctional facility in Smithfield, Pa., according to state Department of Corrections records.
Campbell had been in the Butler County Prison since May 2009, when township police arrested him on unrelated charges for allegedly beating an elderly bingo winner and trying to steal her winnings.
In June 2010, Campbell claimed an “incessant barrage” of media coverage on this case made it impossible to find a fair jury in Butler County. He requested to move his robbery trial to another county, and was denied. He was sentenced to two to five years in prison.
Following his life sentence being handed down, Campbell asked that he be given a new trial or his life sentence be reduced for Murphey’s killing.
But Judge Timothy McCune, who presided over Campbell’s five-day jury trial in September 2010, denied him on all counts.
