Suspect in Pitt student's slaying charged with assaulting guards

A man already headed to trial in connection with the slaying of a University of Pittsburgh student and two alleged sexual assaults will also stand trial on charges he assaulted Allegheny County Jail guards, a judge ruled Monday.

Matthew Isaiah Darby, 21, allegedly attacked the officers during his intake into the jail following his extradition from Myrtle Beach, S.C., in November.

Darby is charged in the Oct. 8 beating death of his ex-girlfriend, 20-year-old Alina Sheykhet, in her off-campus apartment in Pittsburgh's Oakland section.

Sheykhet was found dead in her bedroom that morning by her parents and roommates, police have said. Darby was arrested in Myrtle Beach three days after Sheykhet's death after a resident reported a suspicious person prowling around a home. Police arrested Darby and discovered he was wanted on homicide charges in Pittsburgh.

According to a criminal complaint filed Feb. 23, Darby was going through the intake process at the jail shortly before midnight Nov. 4. He was using an intake telephone and ordered to hang up, and he “reluctantly complied.”

“During the property exchange, Darby stated to Officer Jane McVeigh that he was going to, ‘(expletive) him up' and he was a ‘$30,000-a-year (expletive),' ” police wrote in the complaint.

When ordered to strip out of his street clothes, Darby allegedly made a remark, threw his T-shirt at the officer and lunged at him, according to the complaint. Three other officers responded to the attack, and Darby was subdued with a Taser weapon.

One officer was taken to UPMC Mercy for a hand injury, according to the complaint.

Darby's homicide trial is set to begin in July.

Sheykhet had applied for and was granted a protection-from-abuse order against Darby weeks earlier because he allegedly climbed a gutter and broke into her bedroom, according to court records. He was charged with trespassing and released on $10,000 bond.

He was charged in March with the alleged rape and assault of another ex-girlfriend in Indiana County. He was out on $10,000 bond as that case worked its way through the court system.

While he awaited transfer in South Carolina, Darby was charged in connection with the rape of a 17-year-old Elizabeth Township girl, an assault that allegedly happened several days before Sheykhet's murder.

Megan Guza is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 412-380-8519, mguza@tribweb.com or via Twitter @meganguzaTrib.