Pittsburgh man sentenced after pleading guilty to fatally stabbing woman, hiding her in a tool shed
A judge on Wednesday sent a Pittsburgh man to prison for up to 38 years after he pleaded guilty to stabbing a woman 56 times and stashing her corpse inside a suitcase in a tool shed near his Knoxville home.
Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kevin Sasinoski sentenced Montel Reed, 28, to 19 to 28 years in prison for killing Crystal Leschner, 28, on Dec. 27, 2021. A neighbor found Leschner’s body bloody and wrapped in plastic days after the attack.
Sasinoski also sentenced Reed to 10 to 20 years in prison for attempting to fatally stab another man during an altercation five days after Leschner’s death.
“(The sentences) could never be too much time for him,” Drexel Connelly, 59, Leschner’s stepfather, told TribLive after the sentencing. “We all know he has no remorse in his body at all.”
Reed, who wore a black cross around his neck Wednesday over his red Allegheny County Jail jumpsuit, apologized to Leschner’s family.
“I don’t have no excuse for what happened,” he said.
It took Reed less than four minutes to enter his plea, saying nothing except “Yes, your honor” and “No, your honor.” The victims’ testimony against Reed took nearly half an hour.
“(Crystal’s) laughter was contagious, and she would do anything for anyone,” said Deborah Duca, 61, Leschner’s mother. “Montel made me the mother of a murdered daughter.”
Duca’s voice started to break and she began to weep about halfway through reading her statement.
“I will never forget the medical examiner telling me he had to wait on the autopsy because she had to thaw,” Duca said.
“He is a heartless murderer who stabbed my sister 56 times,” added Alexia Connelly, 23, in a statement. “I hope she lives in his head, playing on a loop … but I don’t believe there’s remorse.”
Leschner lived in a converted apartment above a detached garage on the property, police said. Reed had been living in the basement of the home on Reifert Street.
Investigators previously said Reed was charged four times in 2021 for allegedly assaulting Leschner. He’d be arrest in connection with the assaults Dec. 7, and was released from Allegheny County Jail 10 days later.
After Leschner’s killing, Reed turned himself in to authorities.
Justin Vellucci is a TribLive reporter covering crime and public safety in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. A longtime freelance journalist and former reporter for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, he worked as a general assignment reporter at the Trib from 2006 to 2009 and returned in 2022. He can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com.
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