Jitney driver from Castle Shannon guilty of first-degree murder in 2018 shooting death
A jitney driver accused of killing a man and dumping his body on the side of a road in North Versailles was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder.
Darrel Hardy Jr., 33, of Castle Shannon, is scheduled to be sentenced by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Randal B. Todd on June 30. He faces a mandatory term of life in prison without parole.
The jury deliberated about four-and-a-half hours over two days before reaching its verdict.
Hardy was accused of killing Zack “Bud” Moore, 28, early on July 8, 2018.
Hardy worked as a driver for Moore, and the night before, he took him to a bar in Homestead, then another in the Strip District, followed by two after-hours clubs. Hardy accompanied Moore in the establishments, police said.
But by about 5:30 a.m., Moore’s body was found near Dixon Avenue and East Pittsburgh-McKeesport Boulevard with a gunshot wound to his head.
Using license plate readers, security camera footage and a rental car agreement, investigators were able to identify Hardy as a suspect.
A few hours after Moore’s body was found, someone called 911 to report a car on fire on the South Side. The car, a 2017 red Chevy Malibu rental car, had been rented by Hardy.
License plate readers showed it in the area where Moore’s body was left, and surveillance footage near the car fire showed Hardy walking away.
Remnants of the clothes he wore out that night to the clubs were found in the trunk and had blood on them, prosecutors said.
Paula Reed Ward is a TribLive reporter covering federal and Allegheny County courts. She joined the Trib in 2020 after spending nearly 17 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team. She is the author of “Death by Cyanide.” She can be reached at pward@triblive.com.
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