In the late hours of a cold December evening in 2015, a fatal encounter unfolded in a walkway between a school and a church in Wilkinsburg, a borough just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The life of 22-year-old Regis Jones was cut short by multiple gunshot wounds. His body was discovered the following morning, on December 10, 2015, by a custodian on a walkway between Sister Thea Bowman School and St. James Church on Rebecca Avenue. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators soon identified a suspect, Shauntel Studvant, a 23-year-old from the nearby city of McKeesport. Surveillance video from the school and other city cameras captured both Studvant and Jones walking together down the street shortly before the shooting. According to police, Studvant voluntarily came to them and provided a statement. He claimed that he and Jones were walking together when Jones attempted to rob him at gunpoint. Studvant alleged that a struggle for the weapon ensued, during which he gained control of the gun and shot Jones multiple times. He then fled the scene, burned his clothes, and threw the firearm off a bridge.
Shauntel Studvant was arrested and charged with criminal homicide, tampering with evidence, and firearms violations. In January 2016, a judge ordered him to stand trial. Ultimately, in January 2017, Studvant pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of third-degree murder as part of a negotiated plea agreement. He was sentenced to serve 10 to 20 years in prison, followed by five years of probation. During the sentencing, family members of Regis Jones spoke about the loss of a young man who had grown up in the same community as the man who took his life.
