A Pennsylvania judge accused of shooting her ex-boyfriend in the head while he was asleep was convicted Wednesday (April 9) of attempted murder and aggravated assault.
After two hours of deliberation, a jury found Sonya McKnight, a magistrate judge in Dauphin, guilty of her crimes.
The suspended judge had previously been charged with one count of attempted murder and one count of aggravated assault.
McKnight, who held the position since 2016, was taken away in handcuffs after the trial judge rejected a defense request that she be released, AP News reported,
She faces up to 60 years in prison when she’s sentenced next month.
McKnight, 58, was taken outside the county for incarceration because she sent numerous defendants to Dauphin County Prison during her nine years on the bench, the New York Post reported.
The shooting occurred on February 10, 2024, after McKnight’s then-boyfriend, Michael McCoy, 54, tried to end their one-year relationship and asked her to move out of his home.
McKnight reportedly agreed to go, but later that evening, McCoy was woken up by a “massive head pain” and was blind. During the trial, he testified that he couldn’t see after the shooting but that the ex-judge was the only other person home at the time.
Authorities said that McKnight called 911 and during the call, she couldn’t explain what had happened and stated that she was asleep and heard him screaming.
Emergency responders rushed the 54-year-old to the hospital, where they found a gunshot wound to the right temple that exited his left temple. Although McCoy survived, he is now blind in one eye.
“There were two people in that house, and only two people in that house,” District Attorney Sean McCormack told reporters. “And one of them, the one who was shot, said he did not shoot himself.”
McKnight, who served as an elected judge in Dauphin County since 2016, was suspended without pay in November 2023 by the Court of Judicial Discipline—the body that oversees judicial misconduct in Pennsylvania.
The suspension followed allegations from the Judicial Conduct Board that she had violated the terms of judicial probation stemming from an earlier case involving a 2020 traffic stop with her son. McKnight was previously acquitted of criminal charges related to that incident.
McKnight had a previous altercation with her estranged husband, Enoch McKnight, in 2019, during which she shot him in the groin after inviting him over to help her move furniture.
The couple married in 2014 but had filed for divorce two years later. Prosecutors didn’t charge her, citing self-defense.
