Baldwin man gets 22 to 54 years in prison for stalking ex, arranging killing of her boyfriend

Matthew Lambert spent months stalking the mother of his child, using a GPS tracker to follow her movements and sending vile text messages that instilled her with fear.

Then he paid three people $5,000 and 25 bricks of heroin to kill the man she was dating as they left Rumerz bar on Pittsburgh’s North Side the night of May 8, 2019.

After pleading guilty to third-degree murder in October, Lambert, 24, of Baldwin, was ordered Tuesday to serve 22 to 54 years in state prison.

In addition to the murder count, Lambert also pleaded guilty in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court to stalking, making terroristic threats, criminal conspiracy and reckless endangerment.

Assistant District Attorney Alex Cashman said that although Lambert was not the person who pulled the trigger and killed 26-year-old Tre Valorie, he set all of the events in motion.

“I believe Mr. Lambert is a danger not only to Ms. (Chassity) Lubawski, but society in general,” Cashman said.

Lubawski had previously dated Lambert, and the two had a daughter together.

Investigators said Lambert sent Lubawski hundreds of text messages after they broke up, including threats to kill her and any other man she would be with and messages in which he told her that the thought of her seeing other people was making him “crazy.”

A criminal complaint filed against Lambert said he installed a GPS tracker on Lubawski’s vehicle and used that to follow her to Rumerz the night Valorie was killed.

In her written victim impact statement, Lubawski wrote, “Matt is selfish and cares for no one except himself.”

She told the court that Lambert showed up that night at the first bar she and Valorie visited, and the two men went outside and exchanged words. Valorie returned and suggested that he and Lubawski leave, and the two headed to Rumerz on the North Side.

“Even after Matt showed up,” Lubawski wrote, “it never once crossed my mind that anything more than a fistfight would happen.”

But during their confrontation outside, Valorie told Lambert he would not get to see his daughter again, upsetting Lambert. Lambert later told police that exchange prompted him to set in motion a plan he had to kill Valorie.

He previously had spoken with two other men, Jerquay Atkins and Onaje Dickinson, about the plan. After the argument in the parking lot with Valorie, he called the men and told them to get ready.

Lambert told police that he went and picked up Atkins and Dickinson and followed the GPS tracker he’d installed on Lubawski’s car to Rumerz.

When they arrived, Lambert said he told the men to retrieve the GPS tracker, and that the plan was to kill Valorie later that evening at his home. But Dickinson and Atkins couldn’t retrieve the tracker, and instead fired several shots at Valorie and the car, the complaint said.

When they got back to Lambert, Atkins “joked he almost shot” Lubawski as well, the complaint said.

Lambert paid them the cash and drugs the next day.

The complaint said that Dickinson was killed on July 14, 2019. Since Lambert’s interview with police, Atkins has been charged with criminal homicide, conspiracy and reckless endangerment. Another man, Tyler Sherrell, is also charged with homicide and conspiracy. Police said he provided a black hooded sweatshirt to one of the shooters to conceal their identity. He also followed Atkins and Dickinson to Lambert’s father’s house after the shooting.

Both Atkins and Sherrell are scheduled for a pre-trial conference on January 21.

During Tuesday’s sentencing, Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski said he received several letters from Valorie’s family and heard victim impact statements from his mother, grandfather and sister.

Kimberly Valorie told the court that her son was the glue that held their family together. She said he worked as a barber and landscaper, would take leftover food from the holidays to homeless people and loved his daughter, Gianna, above all else.

Their whole family had traveled to Florida for a vacation the week Tre Valorie was killed. He was supposed to have gone, but remained in Pittsburgh to work and earn money for a trip to Disney World that he planned for Gianna, now 7, two months later.

Since his death, his mom told the court, she can’t adequately express how lost, how sad, how angry and how broken she is. Kimberly Valorie said she has trouble remembering the good times with her son.

“All the hate and anger overpower all the love I felt inside,” she said. “How did this man not only kill my son, but he gave me a life sentence, as well?”

In the middle of the hearing, Valorie’s uncle shouted in the courtroom that the family did not agree with the plea deal offered to Lambert.

“If I acted like him, could I get the same amount of time?” James Liptak shouted at the judge.

Borkowski had him removed from the courtroom and detained by sheriff’s deputies.

Lambert spoke briefly, apologizing to Valorie’s family.

“Mrs. Valorie, I owe you my life. I can’t imagine what I’ve caused you.”

Lambert said he didn’t realize what he was doing at the time. He told Lubawski he wished he would have left her alone and been a better father.

“It’s disgusting,” he said. “I hate myself for what I’ve done. I’m sorry.”

Defense attorney Michael DeRiso asked Borkowski for a sentence of five to 10 years in prison, citing his client’s ongoing cooperation against Atkins and Sherrell.

While acknowledging the fear Lubawski must have felt, DeRiso said, “He’s not the shooter, your honor.”

Cashman, who acknowledged Lambert’s cooperation with investigators, asked for a sentence of 20 to 40 years. Valorie would still be alive if not for Lambert’s actions, the prosecutor said.

Borkowski agreed.

“His cooperation in the subsequent investigation and prosecution of the shooters is addressing a circumstance he created,” the judge said. “He created the whole mess.”