Pitcairn man pleads guilty in 2019 stabbing death of girlfriend
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A 60-year-old Pitcairn man pleaded guilty to third-degree murder Tuesday in connection with the stabbing death of his girlfriend.
Derrick “Deke” Avant admitted to stabbing Alison Fritzius, 55, on April 7, 2019, inside an apartment in the 800 block of Broadway Street.
In exchange for the plea, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office agreed to a 15- to 30-year sentence that was also imposed Tuesday by Judge Beth Lazzara.
Police found Fritzius on the front porch of a different house on Hillside Avenue house in a pool of blood with a chest wound, according to the criminal complaint filed against Avant.
A bank card, parole papers and medication prescribed to Avant were found inside the apartment, as was a knife covered in blood that was inside a kitchen drawer, police said.
Police talked with two witnesses who told them Avant and Fritzius had a stormy relationship and that Avant had been jailed for beating up Fritzius, according to the complaint.
A witness who heard them fighting April 7 told police that Fritzius said, “I’m going to call the police,” and that Avant’s reply was, “If you call the police, I’ll kill you. I’m not going back to jail,” according to the complaint.
Avant turned himself in to authorities on April 10 and has been in Allegheny County Jail since. He was serve his sentence in state prison, according to the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office.