Pittsburgh man who won right to new trial pleads guilty to 3rd-degree murder

A man from Pittsburgh’s Overbrook neighborhood who won the right to a new trial 13 years after he was convicted of accidentally killing his great aunt in Perry North pleaded guilty Tuesday to third-degree murder.

Jayquon Massey, 32, was ordered to serve 14 to 28 years in prison as part of a plea agreement.

He already has served nearly 15 years and now is eligible for parole.

In October 2008, a jury found Massey guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Cheryl Wilds, a beloved Allegheny County court reporter who was shot on Nov. 21, 2007.

Wilds and her fiance, George Wilson, had gone to Giant Eagle to get groceries for the next day’s Thanksgiving dinner and had just returned to her Bonvue Street home.

As they exited a bus, Wilds was struck in the neck by a bullet fired by Massey, Assistant District Attorney Emma Schoedel said.

Massey said he had been robbed the day before, and on the day of Wilds’ shooting, he saw a red SUV carrying people he believed had robbed him. The SUV approached him several times and returned as Wilds was getting off the bus.

Massey, who claimed he saw a weapon, fired multiple times, striking Wilds.

Wilds survived for three months but never recovered and died from complications of the wound on Feb. 27, 2008.

Massey initially went to trial in the fall of 2008. A jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to a mandatory prison term of life without parole.

Massey appealed, arguing that his defense attorney at trial should have asked that the jury be given the option of finding him guilty of voluntary manslaughter under the theory of imperfect self-defense — that Massey had an unreasonable belief that his life was in danger and deadly force was necessary.

Massey has always admitted firing the shots that killed Wilds and testified to that at trial.

However, when the case was to be given to the jury, Massey’s defense attorney, Noah Geary, asked that the panel not be given the instruction on voluntary manslaughter.

The appeal went up to the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Prosecutors argued that Geary’s decision not to have the manslaughter instruction was part of a strategy to avoid a compromise verdict and instead try for a full acquittal for his client.

However, in May 2021, the Third Circuit panel agreed with the defense that the failure was ineffective assistance of counsel.

“Although competent counsel is entitled to make a strategic decision to decline a particular jury instruction, the record simply does not support a finding that trial counsel’s decision in this case was based in sound strategy,” the court wrote. “Massey asserts that he was prejudiced by trial counsel’s decision to decline a jury instruction on voluntary manslaughter. We agree.”

The court awarded Massey a new trial.

On Tuesday, he appeared before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Beth A. Lazzara to plead to third-degree murder.

“I’m sorry. My story has never changed. I’m sorry, Mr. George, for any harm and any pain that I caused you,” Massey said.

His attorney, Craig Cooley, told the court that Massey has never denied firing the shots.

“He’s been remorseful from the moment it happened,” Cooley said. “It was just a tragic accident.”