Trial begins for jitney driver accused of killing man, dumping body in North Versailles

Using license plate reading cameras, security camera footage and a car rental agreement, Allegheny County Police detectives were able to identify Darrel Hardy Jr. as the man they believed killed Zack “Bud” Moore within hours of the 2018 shooting.

Hardy, who worked as a jitney driver, is on trial this week on charges of criminal homicide, arson and tampering with evidence. Openings began on Wednesday before Common Pleas Judge Randal B. Todd.

“This case is about a murder and a monumental coverup,” said Assistant District Attorney Emma Schoedel in her opening statement.

According to investigators, Hardy, 33, was Moore’s driver the night of July 7, 2018, and then accompanied him to a bar in Homestead, then another in the Strip District, before stopping at two after-hours clubs.

At one of those clubs, the men met up with one of Moore’s friends, who told police when he split from the group that morning in Homewood, Moore was fine.

“Little did [he] know that the last time anyone saw Bud would be when the sun rose at 5:26 a.m. on the side of the road in North Versailles,” Schoedel said.

Moore, 28, was found near Dixon Avenue and East Pittsburgh-McKeesport Boulevard early July 8, 2018. He had a gunshot wound to his head, and based on the blood at the scene and on the body, the prosecutor said, detectives suspected he’d been shot inside a car and pushed out.

On a hunch, Schoedel said, investigators checked with county 911 dispatchers and found a vehicle fire had been reported on the South Side.

When they got there, they found a 2017 red Chevy Malibu rental car that had been rented by Hardy.

“The fire almost completely destroyed the whole vehicle and what was in it,” Schoedel said.

But detectives found the soles of Moore’s melted Jordan tennis shoes in the passenger seat, as well as remnants of the clothing Hardy appered to be wearing that night while out at the clubs.

The clothing had blood on it, Schoedel said.

In addition, she said, business surveillance cameras in the area of the fire captured Hardy around that time in the immediate area wearing different clothes.

Schoedel said Hardy took public transportation back to his girlfriend’s home in Castle Shannon, where he was later confronted by police.

In her opening statement, Hardy’s attorney, Ann Simms, told the jury that most of the prosecution’s evidence in the case is circumstantial.

“Things are never really as they seem,” she said.

Once detectives found that the Malibu had been rented by Hardy, Simms said, they “focused solely on accumulating viable evidence to accuse him of homicide.”

Referencing the license plate reading cameras that tracked the Malibu, she continued, “They don’t know or have any proof of who was driving that car.”

Hardy, Simms said, was too drunk, and he asked Moore to drive.

The attorney also questioned why the detectives believed Moore’s friend’s story and not that of her client.

“Darrel Hardy tells his truth to detectives and sticks to his story,” Simms said. “Who’s the most credible?”

Hardy served in the U.S. Army for four years and worked as a water purification specialist, she told the jury. After he was discharged, he continued to work in the same capacity for private contractors making frequent trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, she said.

But in early 2018, Hardy returned to the Pittsburgh area to be near his family. While he tried to find work in his field, Simms said, he started working as a jitney.