Man found guilty of 1st-degree murder in Perry South shooting death
A jury on Thursday found a Troy Hill man guilty of first-degree murder in the 2018 shooting death of his girlfriend.
Calvin Stewart Alston, 59, will be sentenced to a mandatory life prison term by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Beth A. Lazzara on Oct. 20.
Alston was charged in the July 28, 2018, death of Vera Williams Butler, 54, who was killed in front of her home in the 200 block of Luray Street in Perry South.
A witness told investigators that they saw Alston and Butler arguing in the front seat of his pickup truck the evening of the shooting, and moments later heard three to four gunshots. The witness said when they looked out the window, they saw Alston shouting, “‘I told you so… I told you so,’” police said.
Butler died at the scene.
Another witness told police Alston immediately drove off. Investigators found Alston’s truck, but it wasn’t until Aug. 2 that he turned himself in, telling witnesses, “‘I need to turn myself in for murder. I murdered my girlfriend,’” the criminal complaint 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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