Jury finds man guilty of 1st-degree murder for killing ex-girlfriend in front of their toddler

An Allegheny County jury only needed about three hours Friday before finding Terrence Washington guilty of first-degree murder in the 2020 shooting death of his ex-girlfriend, Makeida Thompson.

The prosecution had lobbied for the verdict, telling the jury that Washington meant to kill the mother of his child during a confrontation in his grandmother’s home in Pittsburgh.

“The defendant was enraged (and) throughout this trial we’ve shown you the build-up of that rage,” Deputy District Attorney Ryan Kiray said during a 34-minute closing argument.

“This was willful. This was intentional. It was premeditated. And it was completely and utterly unjustified.”

Washington, 40, faces a mandatory life sentence without parole. His sentencing is scheduled for June 25.

Washington’s lawyer agreed his client fired the fatal shots on Nov. 10, 2020, in the city’s East Liberty neighborhood.

“He did it,” Thomas N. Farrell said. “He is not happy about it. He didn’t intend to kill her.”

Inside the courtroom Friday afternoon, more than a dozen people who knew Thompson — siblings, nieces, friends — braced for the verdict.

Many gripped each other’s hands. Some bowed their heads.

Then, the foreperson read the words “guilty” and “first-degree murder.”

“Yes!” one woman mouthed, before beginning to cry.

Moments later, Thompson’s stepmother filed patiently out of the courtroom, then collapsed, wailing, on the courthouse’s third floor.

“Four-and-a-half years, we finally have got justice served,” said Dawnisha Thompson, 43, of Monessen, the victim’s older sister. “Now we can move on with our lives and my sister could rest.”

“I’m overjoyed,” she added, tears running down her cheeks. “Just the thought that he will never be able to see the light of day again is a blessing.”

Evidence and testimony showed Washington killed Thompson in front of his 1-year-old son, mother and grandmother.

But Farrell tried to persuade the jury that his client acted in self-defense, claiming that Thompson, a juvenile probation officer, reached for her gun.

Farrell asked jurors to consider finding Washington guilty of involuntary manslaughter, saying his client did not act with intent or malice.

Jurors deliberated from about noon to 3 p.m. before alerting Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Beth A. Lazzara that they had averdict.

Authorities say Washington fired at Thompson, 32, of Clairton seven times, striking her in the head with four of the bullets.

Thompson and Washington had broken up and were quarrelling in the months leading up to the shooting, according to hundreds of text messages read aloud Wednesday to jurors by a detective.

Farrell attempted to poke holes in the prosecution’s version of events.

Thompson had a license for the pistol she was carrying on the day of her death. Washington feared she would use it, according to his attorney.

“It’s self-defense — she reached for the gun. She threatened him,” Farrell said.

Farrell claimed Washington fled to Seattle because he feared police officers would kill him. Police arrested him just over a month after the shooting.

The attorney criticized the chaos at the East Liberty home as officers collected shell casings near Thompson’s body. He repeatedly characterized the crime scene as “abominable,” “a shambles” and “a mess.”

Farrell suggested to jurors that court administrators involved in granting Thompson a restraining order days before the shooting and media who portrayed Washington in an unkind light might have influenced the defendant’s actions.

He also questioned whether Washington’s grandmother, who testified for prosecutors, was “mistaken” in how she recalled the morning’s sequence of events due to medication she regularly took.

Kiray, the prosecutor, painted a much different picture.

He cited text messages where Thompson said she feared her ex-boyfriend was setting her up by bringing her to his grandmother’s house to talk that morning.

He also said an autopsy showed Washington shot Thompson several times in the back of head.

“Executions happen from behind — that, ladies and gentlemen, is what happened here,” Kiray said.

Farrell, however, told jurors — without providing details in his closing argument — that it was not clear Thompson was shot in the back of the head.

“What happened here was not self-defense,” Kiray said. “She didn’t see him. She didn’t do anything. She didn’t know he was there. She didn’t deserve it. She should be here to raise her kids.”

Testimony earlier in the week showed that Thompson got a temporary restraining order against Washington six days before the shooting. She told a judge she feared Washington was going to harm her, court transcripts show.

“Don’t get near the courts,” Washington had texted Thompson the day the restraining order was granted. “It will get ugly for you.”

Thompson also used similarly menacing language in their texts.

Prosecutors claimed the shooting that ended monthslong arguments over custody and child support was part of Washington’s plan.

‘That’s what you get for messing with me,” Washington allegedly said after the shooting, his grandmother testified Tuesday in court.