Man who killed Pitt student Alina Sheykhet to get hearing on effectiveness of former attorney

A man who pleaded guilty to killing a University of Pittsburgh student to avoid a possible death penalty will get a hearing to try to prove his attorney was ineffective.

The state Superior Court ruled Monday in favor of Matthew Darby, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Oct. 17, 2018, for the stabbing death of 20-year-old Alina Sheykhet. In exchange for his plea, Darby, now 25, formerly of Hempfield, was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Sheykhet, a 2015 graduate of Montour High School, was found by her parents the morning of Oct. 8, 2017, in the bedroom of her Cable Place apartment in Oakland. She attended University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg for two years before transferring to the Oakland campus that fall.

Darby, who had dated Sheykhet, broke into her apartment two weeks earlier, and she had gotten a protection-from-abuse order against him.

However, early on Oct. 8, 2017, Darby broke in again and killed Sheykhet, police said. Investigators, using surveillance video from the area, recovered a hammer and two knives used in the attack from a sewer near the apartment.

Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty against Darby, asserting four necessary aggravating factors, including that he was the subject of a PFA brought by the victim, that she was a prosecution witness against him and that he had a history of felony convictions using violence or the threat of violence.

Darby, a former Pitt-Greensburg student, agreed to plead guilty to first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence, in exchange for removing the possibility of a death penalty.

However, a year later and with new counsel, Joseph Hudak, Darby filed a post-conviction petition arguing ineffective assistance of counsel.

In his filings, Darby said his attorney at the time, Thomas N. Farrell, failed to explain or do a proper analysis of risk on the case.

In its response, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office said Darby’s claims would not succeed, but conceded a hearing on the matter might be necessary.

The decision is not based on any potential merit for Darby’s claim, but instead on precedent known as the “coordinate jurisdiction rule,” which provides that judges in the same jurisdiction should not overrule each other.

The Darby case originally was assigned to Judge Jeffrey A. Manning.

In June 2020, he ordered that a hearing be held on Darby’s claims. However, the case was reassigned to Judge Edward J. Borkowski after Manning went on medical leave.

Borkowski issued an order in February 2021 dismissing Darby’s petition without a hearing.

On appeal, the state Superior Court said Borkowski was required to hold the hearing Manning ordered.

Mike Manko, a spokesman for the DA’s office, said his office will not appeal the decision.

“This defendant pleaded guilty to a brutal crime that he obviously committed, and we are confident of our position pending the hearing,” he said.

Hudak disagreed.

“This is the first step in taking back Darby’s life sentence,” he said. “I think Darby has been totally mischaracterized, and I believe Darby is guilty at the most of third-degree murder. And a jury might find him guilty of voluntary manslaughter.”

Hudak said Darby’s lawyer should not have led him to a first-degree murder plea.

“I don’t believe the evidence ever supported a death penalty verdict,” Hudak said. “And there was so much mitigation, I don’t think he would have received the death penalty anyway.”

Robert DelGreco, an attorney who represents the Sheykhet family, noted the Superior Court opinion does not rule on the substance of Darby’s claims of ineffective assistance of counsel.

“The Sheykhet family believes that Mr. Darby’s motion is meritless and expects his guilty plea to remain intact, along with his sentence of life imprisonment,” DelGreco said.