In Indiana County Court today, Judge Thomas Bianco is scheduled to conduct a post-conviction relief hearing for 23-year-old Matthew Darby, a Greensburg man who was sentenced in 2018 to three to ten years in state prison in a rape case involving an IUP student.
Darby is serving life in prison without parole for the murder of a University of Pittsburgh student. The killing of Alina Sheykhet at her apartment near the Pitt campus in October of 2017 happened eight months after the incident in Indiana.
In Indiana County Court, Darby pleaded guilty to first-degree felony aggravated assault, with non-prosecution for rape, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, and indecent assault. The plea deal was initiated by the defendant. Investigators said he repeatedly called his ex-girlfriend at her Maple Street apartment, asking to come over so he could apologize. When she relented and later told him she was seeing someone else, he attacked and raped her.
For today’s hearing, Darby will testify by video from SCI Fayette. He also has a pending rape case involving a 17-year-old girl in Allegheny County. That trial is scheduled for September.
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