Sheraden woman pleads guilty to killing girlfriend last year

As detectives investigated the Oct. 3, 2021, shooting death of Kia Reynolds, they learned from her family that she’d been trying to leave her girlfriend.

They also discovered a Valentine’s Day card that Unique Lane gave to Reynolds.

In it, Lane wrote, “’til bullets do us part.’”

On Wednesday, Lane, 23, of Sheraden, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder. She is scheduled to be sentenced by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Randal B. Todd on Feb. 22.

Assistant District Attorney Emma Schoedel said Lane’s mother, who lived with her daughter next door, called 911, asking for the police to come to the 2700 block of Glen Mawr Street.

She reported that her daughter had been in a domestic dispute with Reynolds, and that Reynolds, 39, had pulled a gun. The caller told police that Reynolds and Lane struggled over it before it went off.

Schoedel told the judge during Wednesday’s plea hearing that the forensic evidence did not match that story.

When Pittsburgh homicide detectives arrived around 3 a.m., they found Reynolds with a gunshot wound to her head, lying next to the driver’s side door of her vehicle.

She had been sitting inside the car when a shot was fired from outside and through the passenger-side window, Schoedel said.

Someone had then used a rock to smash the driver’s side window of the car to get Reynolds’ body out.

When officers entered Reynolds’ home, Schoedel said, they saw signs of a struggle, including items knocked over and broken, as well as a bullet on the steps and drops of blood on the floor.

Police recovered the gun used in the shooting, which had belonged to Reynolds, in nearby brush, Schoedel said.

Members of Reynolds’ family described a “tumultuous relationship” between Reynolds and Lane, which included both verbal and physical fights.