Jury convicts road-rage driver of 3rd-degree murder in death of off-duty Oakdale cop
A jury on Friday convicted a Pittsburgh man of third-degree murder in the 2022 road-rage killing of an off-duty Oakdale police officer.
Kevin McSwiggen, 42, of Greenfield will be sentenced Oct. 9 in the death of Charles “Chuckie” Stipetich, who was 23.
Jurors deliberated for a few hours Thursday before breaking for the evening. They returned Friday morning to the Allegheny County Courthouse, where they rendered their verdict shortly after 1 p.m.
They also found McSwiggen guilty of reckless endangerment.
“We got justice,” said Deena Stipetich, the victim’s mother, following the verdict.
McSwiggen tailed Stipetich to Fountain Street in Blawnox on July 3, 2022, after becoming irate that, in his telling, Stipetich cut him off on Route 28.
After pulling up to the Stipetich family home on Fountain Street, where the victim lived with his parents, McSwiggen confronted Stipetich about his driving.
Armed with a gun and a knife in a sheath on his belt, McSwiggen argued with Stipetich until the officer’s father, Charles P. Stipetich, got between the two men.
Prosecutors said McSwiggen shot Stipetich, who returned fire, injuring the defendant.
Defense attorney Casey White told the jury in closing arguments Thursday that his client acted in self-defense and asked that the panel of 11 men and one woman find him not guilty of all counts.
The jury, however, rejected that claim.
“We are disappointed in the jury’s verdict,” White said. “Candidly, we were surprised.”
McSwiggen said he wants to appeal.
In finding the defendant guilty, jurors rejected a first-degree murder finding as well as the lesser charges of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.
Chuckie Stipetich had served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps before being discharged in October 2021. He had just joined the Oakdale Police Department a few weeks before he was killed.
His mom said on Friday that her son believed in helping the community, including supporting Special Olympics.
“He loved life.”
Paula Reed Ward is a TribLive reporter covering federal and Allegheny County courts. She joined the Trib in 2020 after spending nearly 17 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team. She is the author of "Death by Cyanide." She can be reached at pward@triblive.com.
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