Less than 24 hours after he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Allegheny County and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, 22-year-old Matthew Darby was sentenced this morning in Indiana County Court for a rape case in involving an IUP student.
Appearing by video-conference from where he is serving his sentence, Darby pleaded guilty to a first-degree felony count of aggravated assault, while charges of indecent assault, aggravated indecent assault, rape and sexual assault were not prosecuted.
District Attorney Patrick Dougherty called everything that happened surrounding Darby’s case “tragic.” He added that once the charges in Allegheny County were wrapped up, they were finally able to get their case underway.
Dougherty also said that Darby offered the plea deal to the prosecutors, and the victim accepted the agreement. Dougherty called it a “plea up” rather than a “plea down” as aggravated assault is a first-degree felony, and he said that the assault on the victim lead to the sexual contact.
The incident happened at an apartment on Maple Street in February of 2017. The victim told police that a night after they broke up, Darby called her repeatedly asking to come over to her place to apologize, and she eventually allowed him to visit. When she told him she was seeing someone else, he allegedly pulled her by the hair and raped her.
Darby was sentenced to 3-10 years in state prison and was ordered to pay a fine of $1000. It was ordered by Judge Thomas Bianco that this sentence would run concurrent to his life sentence Darby is currently serving.
