Dauphin County Courthouse
Suspended Harrisburg Judge Sonya McKnight on Monday faced a jury for the first time since her arrest following a shooting last year.
McKnight is accused of attempting to murder her ex-boyfriend by shooting him in the head while he slept in their Susquehanna Township home in February 2024. The trial began today in the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas.
Monday’s testimony focused on establishing the details surrounding the scene of the shooting and the timeline of the night of the incident. Cumberland County District Attorney Sean McCormack called over a dozen witnesses to the stand, including Susquehanna Township police officers who responded to the incident, forensic analysts and neighbors.
McKnight was charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated assault on Feb. 15, 2024 in relation to the shooting of her ex-boyfriend, Michael McCoy. McCoy survived, but is now blind in one eye.
The Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office is handling the case at the request of Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo, who said that his office had a conflict of interest because McKnight is a magisterial district judge in the county.
McCormack introduced the case to the out-of-county jury from Delaware County, explaining that McKnight and her boyfriend at the time were having relationship issues. He said that McCoy unsuccessfully asked McKnight to move out of his home several times, due to trust issues, before he awoke one night with extreme pain and blood gushing from his head.
The prosecutor said that suicide “plays no role in this case,” and that McCoy has repeatedly denied shooting himself, and that only he and McKnight were in the home the night of the incident.
However, in his opening remarks, McKnight’s attorney Cory Leshner said that the fact that only two people were in the house and that McCoy says he didn’t shoot himself is not proof. So far, there has been no actual evidence to prove McKnight shot McCoy, he said.
McCoy has stated previously that he does not know who shot him because he was asleep and had vision trouble when he woke up. McCoy said that, after he woke up, McKnight was in the room repeatedly asking him, “What did you do to yourself?” McKnight made the initial 9-1-1 call, telling dispatchers that her boyfriend was hemorrhaging blood, officers testified.
Several Susquehanna Township police officers testified on Monday that McCoy told them he didn’t shoot himself. McCoy has also stated that he didn’t even realize he was shot until officers arrived at the scene and told him.
Much of the testimony on Monday revolved around the gunshot residue taken from the scene of the incident.
According to forensic scientist Ashley Stein of RJ Lee Group, a forensics consultant, a small amount of gunshot residue was found on McKnight’s hands and certain articles of clothing. However, significantly more gunshot residue was found on McCoy’s hands—more than was collected from any other surface, Leshner said.
Stein said that gunshot residue may be found on someone if they discharged a gun, were in close range to a discharged gun or were in contact with a person who had residue on them. Stein also testified that residue can be washed off with water.
Susquehanna Township police officer Jamie Sitler testified that she was at the crime scene the night of the incident and observed McKnight going to the bathroom and washing her hands. The lead detective on the case, Lee Tarasi, also said that, while McKnight was removing her clothing at the police station, to be taken as evidence and tested for gunshot residue, she told Tarasi that she dropped her shirt in the toilet.
While the gun was registered to McKnight, Leshner said that McCoy had access to it. A firearm examiner who tested the gun said that he did not have conclusive evidence that the bullet found at the scene of the crime came from the gun found at the scene.
McCormack also called two witnesses to the stand who said that they received calls from McCoy’s phone the night before he was shot, but that it was a woman’s voice on the phone. McCormack said that McKnight had taken McCoy’s phone and called women from his contact list. He characterized her as often being jealous and asking McCoy about other women.
The trial recessed for the day soon after 5 p.m. on Monday and will resume at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.
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