2 convicted of 2nd-degree murder in 2014 slaying
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Jurors in Western Pennsylvania have convicted two men in the shooting death of a Pittsburgh man that police said stemmed from a request from a former lover to have him beaten up.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the Allegheny County panel convicted 28-year-old Derek Lee and 27-year-old Paul Durham of second-degree murder and other crimes Monday in the October 2014 death of 44-year-old Leonard Butler.
Authorities said two men broke into Butler’s home, beat him and hit him with a stun gun, and shot him after he lunged at one of them.
Prosecutors alleged that a former girlfriend had asked Lee to beat Butler up. Prosecutors filed but later withdrew a criminal homicide charge against her.
Defense attorneys cited inconsistences in the accounts of the victim’s live-in girlfriend.