Man pleads guilty to fatally stabbing stepfather on Mt. Washington

A schizophrenic man who was off his medication when he killed his stepfather and stabbed his brother in 2022 inside their Mt. Washington home pleaded guilty on Thursday to third-degree murder.

Javon Taylor, 32, will be sentenced by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos in several weeks.

Taylor, who had been living in a car parked in front of his family’s house on Southern Avenue for five months before the Nov. 16, 2022, attack, also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.

Assistant District Attorney Margaret Potter said that Taylor’s brother, Devin, was in the house that day when he heard the basement door open. He knew it was his brother and called 911.

Javon Taylor was no longer allowed inside because of his mental health issues, Potter said. There was a restraining order against him.

When Javon Taylor got upstairs, he saw his brother on the phone, grabbed a knife and tried to stab him, according to Potter.

His stepfather, Vincent Roebuck, 72, was in a wheelchair in the living room and yelled at Javon Taylor to stop.

Instead, he attacked Roebuck, stabbing him multiple times, before returning to his brother, Potter said. When police arrived at 7:58 a.m., they found Devin Taylor covered in blood with stab wounds to the chin, back and chest, Potter said.

Roebuck also had been stabbed multiple times.

They were both taken to UPMC Mercy. Roebuck died a short time later.

Devin Taylor told police his brother had schizophrenia and had been living in his car.

Investigators found the suspect a short time later at a Mt. Washington laundromat and arrested him.

Javon Taylor told detectives he’d been living in his car for five months.

“The defendant stated he hears voices, and they had spoken to him the night before the incident,” Potter said.

Javon Taylor told police that the voices were telling him jokes and making him laugh, she said.

“Taylor admitted to committing the stabbing because he was frustrated, cold, and wanted a cigarette,” police wrote in the criminal complaint.

Defense attorney Christopher Patarini told the court that his client had previously been evaluated at Torrance State Hospital but was competent to participate in his court hearing.