McKees Rocks man pleads guilty to 3rd-degree murder in Robinson motel killing
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A McKees Rocks man pleaded guilty Monday to killing a Beaver County man at a Robinson motel nearly two years ago.
Jaquay Murray, 27, will be sentenced to 18 to 42 years in prison as part of a negotiated plea on March 29 by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski.
Murray admitted that he shot and killed Christopher Langham at the Pittsburgh Motel on Steubenville Pike on June 26, 2020.
Assistant District Attorney Stephen Sliger said Murray had gone to the motel the night before to meet someone for sex. When Murray learned that person was transgender, they did not have a sexual encounter but Murray spent the night in the person’s room.
Around 11 a.m. the next day, Langham arrived at the motel room to have sex with the other person. The other person asked Murray to stay in the bathroom with the shower running, but moments later, Murray left the bathroom and started shooting.
“My client got scared, didn’t know what was going on,” said defense attorney Anthony Christmas.
Sliger said the motel room was in disarray, and shell casings were found inside.
Langham, 48, was found in the parking lot. He’d been shot at least four times.
Murray was arrested at a Speedway gas station about 200 yards away.
He pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, as well as firearms counts.
Langham’s sister and daughter gave victim-impact statements Monday. Statements also were read by Langham’s mother and stepfather, as well as his fiance, with whom he had been in a relationship for 22 years.
His sister, Nicole Lockhart, said that she and her brother were not close but she hoped their relationship would improve.
Since he died, she said she’s had night terrors and almost lost her job because she couldn’t focus on her work.
Lockhart told Murray that she hopes to forgive him someday.
“Although that may come with time, I do not have that in my heart today,” she said.
At the end of the hearing, Murray’s mother approached Lockhart, telling her, “I’m so sorry.”
The two women hugged tightly, while Murray’s mother sobbed, for several seconds.
Corena Langham, the victim’s daughter, spoke directly to Murray.
“I cannot say my father was my best friend or that you took my daughter’s loving grandfather away,” she said.
But she continued that hoped that she and her father would rebuild their relationship.
Although Corena Langham said she wanted to wish Murray harm for doing what he had done, she couldn’t.
“I hope you really find God and come back and be good and make something of yourself,” she said.