Wednesday April 20, 2022
Darrell Sapp / Post-Gazette
A 25-year-old man was sentenced to a state penitentiary on Tuesday for his role in the fatal 2017 beating of a Somali cab driver.
King Edwards, of Pittsburgh, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, robbery, and conspiracy to commit robbery before Judge Elliot Howsie in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.
Edwards and his co-conspirators, Daniel Russell and Hosea Moore, were charged with criminal homicide after gruesomely beating Ramadhan Mohamed after he picked them up in Beltzhoover on Feb. 21, 2017.
The men pulled Mohamed out of his zTrip car, punched him repeatedly and rummaged through his pockets. After the attack stopped, Edwards and Moore testified at Russell's trial, Russell approached Mohamed again, who was sitting in the grass, and began kicking him repeatedly in the head.
He died three days later.
Russell's case went to trial in November 2019, and the jury found him guilty of second-degree murder — the killing of someone during the commission of another felony. In this case, the felony was robbery.
In Pennsylvania, second-degree murder carries a mandatory penalty of life in prison without parole..
"They continued to kick and punch him while he was lifeless," Deputy District Attorney Ilan Zur said during a 2019 hearing. "He got beaten so severely that his brain actually shifted in his skull."
"It wasn't an accident. It wasn't reckless," Mr. Zur later said. "He intended this result. This was clearly an intent to kill."
Edwards and Moore had chosen to testify against Russell in exchange for their pleas.
As a result of Tuesday’s hearing, Edwards was sentenced to 19 to 38 years in a state penitentiary, followed by five years of probation.