Man pleads guilty to killing Duquesne woman

A man who had been staying in White Oak will serve 11-1/2 to 23 years in state prison after pleading guilty Monday to killing a woman in McKeesport two years ago.

Gerald Walker, 39, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and two firearms counts before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski.

A criminal complaint filed in the case said McKeesport police were called to the 1900 block of Rogena Street just before 5:30 a.m. on April 26, 2020.

Police said they found Amber Dolby, 38, of Duquesne, with a gunshot wound to the head. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Using video surveillance from a nearby Sunoco gas station, along with license plate reading cameras, investigators were able to identify the car they believe Dolby had gotten into shortly before her death.

The car belonged to a person Walker had been dating, police said. Video showed the car, a blue Ford Fiesta, pulling into the parking lot at 4:07 a.m. Audio from the recording revealed the sound of a car door opening and closing, and the vehicle then exited the parking lot.

When detectives interviewed Walker later that day, they swabbed his hands for gunshot residue, and he told them he had gone to a gun range with his sister the day before, the complaint said.

Walker couldn’t confirm what range they’d visited, and his sister, when asked later, said the story was not true, the complaint said.

He refused to answer any questions about Dolby.

Several months later, analysts with the Allegheny County crime lab confirmed that a spent casing found at the scene of Dolby’s shooting matched ammunition found at another witness’s apartment.