Kenneth Beckel, a 25-year-old white male from Carnegie, was killed on September 11, 2015, after what began as a drug-related meeting in Pittsburgh's Marshall-Shadeland neighborhood. The encounter unfolded around 3:00 p.m. near Brighton Road and Ingham Street, where Beckel and Jamie Romesburg had gone in a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. Court records later described the plan as a heroin purchase arranged with Markus Watson, who testified that Beckel and Romesburg were coming to buy $275 worth
of heroin. John Williams, known by the nickname “Butters,” was at the Gifford Street residence connected to the deal shortly before the shooting.
Witnesses described a sudden burst of violence inside the truck. One witness heard someone yell for a person to get out, followed by three or four shots. Another saw someone jump out of the back door, pull up a hood, and run from the area. A postal worker later testified that there were three people in the truck and that the person in the back seat reached forward and shot the driver first, then the passenger. Romesburg died at the scene, while Beckel was still alive when officers reached him; CPR was performed before he was taken to Allegheny General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead later that night.
Investigators tied Williams to the shooting through witness accounts from the Gifford Street house and the scene. Watson testified that he saw someone in clothing similar to Williams's get into Beckel's truck and that he tried to warn Beckel not to let the person inside as the truck pulled away. Minutes later, Williams allegedly returned to the house frantic, ran upstairs, and said he had shot someone in the head before changing his clothes. Detectives also recovered shell casings from a. 380-caliber firearm, and a forensic pathologist later concluded that both Beckel and Romesburg died from gunshot wounds and that the manner of death was homicide.
Williams was arrested on November 18, 2015, by Pittsburgh police and the U.S. Marshals Western Pennsylvania Fugitive Task Force. At the time of the arrest, police said he would be charged with criminal homicide, robbery, possession of a firearm, and carrying a firearm without a license. During questioning, Williams initially denied being involved or even being in the neighborhood, but court records say he then raised a version of events in which he claimed he entered the truck, got into an argument with Romesburg, struggled over a gun, and fired in self-defense.
At trial, prosecutors presented the case as a robbery and killing connected to the drug transaction, not a justified act of self-defense. The jury convicted Williams on July 18, 2016, of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of robbery, and one firearms charge after about two hours of deliberation. He was later sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders, along with additional consecutive sentences for robbery and the firearm offense. Williams appealed, arguing in part that the evidence did not disprove self-defense, but the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the judgment of sentence in 2019.
