Man admits to killing woman in abandoned house in Homewood

A homeless man pleaded guilty but mentally ill on Thursday to strangling a woman in an abandoned Homewood house in March.

James Wilson, 35, pleaded to both third-degree murder and third-degree murder of an unborn child in the death of Brittany Alker, 30, whose body was found in a closet in an home on Forest Way on March 12.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kevin G. Sasinoski set sentencing for Jan. 14. At that time, the judge is expected to make a formal finding as to Wilson’s mental health diagnoses. The plea agreement calls for a prison sentence of 18 to 40 years.

In Pennsylvania, a guilty but mentally ill plea allows a defendant to be incarcerated in a state prison that offers dedicated mental health treatment.

According to the affidavit of probable cause, Wilson called 911 just before 4 a.m. on March 12 and asked police to take him to Shadyside Hospital. Officers said he appeared to be anxious.

About 90 minutes later, the complaint said, the same officers returned to the hospital to check on a man who was sitting outside. Wilson was at a bus stop, and when the officers approached him, he began to cry. Wilson said he’d just killed someone.

Officers went to the house on Forest Way and found Alker’s body stuffed in a closet.

Investigators said Wilson told them he and Alker had been dating for years and went to the house earlier that night to have sex.

After, Wilson continued, “he began to think and dwell,” on allegations Alker had cheated on him.

When he asked her, she said it was true, the complaint said, and Wilson said he went into a “rage.”

He ordered her to strip off her clothes and lie on the floor. Wilson told detectives he wrapped his belt around her neck and strangled her.