Daily Beast
A Pennsylvania judge on Friday upheld a controversial plea deal for David Sumney—a man who murdered his mother and then took a slew of selfies and pictures with her body—despite outrage from virtually everyone in their family.
In a packed courtroom on the 5th floor of Allegheny County County Court, Judge Edward Borkowski certified an August plea for Sumney, who copped to a third-degree murder charge for the savage 2019 slaying of his mother Margaret. During the very brief hearing, six of Sumney’s family members sat in a long row as Borkowski explained how he was not going to grant their wish to reject the plea, stating that sometimes “cases are resolved on a regular basis against the wish of family members… and sometimes even victims.”
As Borkowski gave his ruling, several of Sumney’s family members began shaking their heads, aghast that they lost their last battle for a full-scale prosecution. The original charges in the case included first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, theft, and robbery.
“This is just wrong,” Ann Shade, one of Margaret’s three sisters in attendance, told The Daily Beast at the end of the row after the hearing was dismissed. “I just can’t believe this. Nobody is listening to us.”
Several seats down, Sumney’s ex-girlfriend—who is at the center of a separate Atlantic City criminal case where he is accused of several charges after she says he waterboarded and strangled her in a hotel room in July 2019—shook her head violently. Sumney walked out of the courtroom without looking at his family, firmly holding a brown folder with papers close to his red jumpsuit-clad chest. The folder simply stated the words “Sumney” in black sharpie.
“A ton of bricks just went on my shoulders,” the ex-girlfriend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Daily Beast after the hearing. “I almost puked when he said he was keeping the plea…
