A Mt. Lebanon man who was paid $4,000 in drugs and cash to kill a McKees Rocks woman in 2022 will serve at least 18 years in prison.

Alec Stefanovits, 30, told the judge on Tuesday that he was in a drug-fueled craze when he killed Ashley Roberts on Jan. 23, 2022, in Pittsburgh’s Sheraden neighborhood.

“I’m a different person now.”

Stevanovits pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, one count of escape and possessing a shank in Allegheny County Jail on Tuesday before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Bruce Beemer.

As part of a plea agreement, Stefanovits was ordered to serve 18 to 36 years in state prison, with credit for two years time served.

According to Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Berosh, Roberts was found face down in the middle of Minton Street around 5:40 a.m.

She had been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators recovered 25 shell casings from the area.

No arrests were made, however, until nearly a year later — on Dec. 21, 2022 — when witnesses told police that Stefanovits confessed to the killing.

In an interview that day with police, Stefanovits admitted that he was paid by Steven Bundridge to kill Roberts. Bundridge wanted her dead, Stefanovits told police, because she and her boyfriend tried to rob him, Berosh said.

Bundridge was shot and killed in Spring Garden on Dec. 6, 2022.

According to the criminal complaint in Stefanovits’ case, Bundridge was supposed to pay him $10,000 to kill Roberts but only gave him about $4,000 in cash, drugs and clothes.

Defense attorney Jonathan Orie said that since his client has been incarcerated, he has gotten clean.

“Addiction can take people to terrible places,” Orie said. “Recovery starts with acceptance, and that’s what my client is doing here today.”

Stefanovits apologized to Roberts’ family, who described her as hard-working and ambitious.

Her sister, Brandee Roberts, told Beemer that her sister left four children who have been separated because of her death.

She was dedicated to the Sto-Rox football team and known as the community mom, her sister said.

Melissa Rourke, the victim’s mother, said that her love for her children has been the cornerstone of her existence. But now, she is left to grieve.

“Her laughter no longer echoes in our family gatherings,” Rourke wrote to the judge.

Her daughter’s death will have a profound and lasting impact, she said, especially on her own children.

“They deserve to know their mother’s death was not in vain,” Rourke said.

Throughout the victim impact statements, Stefanovits kept his head down, crying.

“You may be a different person now … but Ashley Roberts doesn’t get that opportunity,” Beemer told him.

“She doesn’t get to be a mom to those four kids. She doesn’t get to see them grow up.”

Beemer told Stefanovits he created “utter devastation.”

“There’s nothing you can ever do to fix this.”

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