Law&Crime Sidebar - Judge Accused of Shooting Ex-Boyfriend in the Head While He Slept

Episode Date: February 25, 2024

Sonya McKnight was already suspended from the bench without pay for misconduct when she was arrested for allegedly trying to kill her ex-boyfriend. The victim, who survived the attack, is now blind in one eye from the assault. He told authorities in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area that the two had broken up but McKnight refused to move out. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber analyzes what will happen next with criminal defense attorney Natalie Whittingham-Burrell.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’ve suffered an injury and need legal support click https://www.attorneytom.com/Sidebar for a FREE consultation or dial 855-TOM-WINSHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A Pennsylvania judge who's been at the center of controversy for years is once again in legal trouble. She's now accused of shooting her ex-boyfriend in the head while he was sleeping after he asked her to move out. We're breaking down this troubling case with criminal defense attorney Natalie Wittingham Burrell. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. So 57-year-old Harrisburg District Judge Sonia M. McKnight is back in the headlines, this time accused of shooting her ex-boyfriend in the head.

Now, here's the good news. The good news is he's alive. He miraculously survived this, but now she is facing charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault. Let me break it down. So according to the Cumberland County District Attorney's Office, the victim, Michael McCoy, had tried to... to end the couple's one-year relationship in early February. He reportedly asked the judge to move out. He says she refused and he tried to take her key away.

But then on February 9th, he came home to find her on his couch in her pajamas. So police say he then leaves to go to a bar but said he would be calling McKnight's mother to see if she could convince McNight to move out, wanted to get her involved. Now that night, McCoy says he told McKnight that they would talk about the relationship the next day and says he went to sleep at around 11 p.m. But then he wakes up a couple hours later with this massive head pain, and he was unable to see. When he started screaming, McNight reportedly asked him, quote, Mike, what did you do to yourself? Well, you come to find out that McCoy had a gunshot wound near his right eye.

But here's the thing. McCoy denies shooting himself, telling both police and hospital staff that that didn't happen. The only other person in the home was McKnight. So she reportedly calls 911, telling them that she heard her boyfriend screaming. but she said she didn't know what happened. And as investigators looked into this, and as the investigation found, the gun that was used was registered to McKnight,

and gunshot residue was reportedly found on her hands around an hour after the shooting. She was also allegedly deceptive when speaking with investigators. For instance, authorities explained that McKnight said she never left the house on the night of the shooting, but surveillance footage from neighbors' doorbell cameras proves that might not be quite the case.

The McKnight was arrested on February 15 She's currently in the Dauphin County Prison with bail set at $300,000. She has a preliminary hearing scheduled for next week. And McCoy, going back to him, as I said, he survived. He was released from the hospital, but he's blind in one eye. Now, do you remember when I said that this judge or the suspended judge is back in the news? I say that because this is not the first time that Judge McNight has been in trouble. No, no, no, no.

At the time of her arrest, she was actually suspended from the bench without pay. There were claims that she violated judicial probation in a misconduct case back in 2020 when she allegedly got involved in a traffic stop involving her son. She was acquitted of criminal charges, but she remained suspended. According to the District Conduct Board of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, McNight violated seven different rules governing standards of conduct for judges. Those violations included theft of time when she allegedly allowed employees to take extra vacation days. She also allegedly told her office manager,

to pretend that she never received a civil complaint regarding a loan that she owed. And then in 2019, McNight was investigated for shooting her estranged husband in the groin. The prosecutors didn't file charges. They said it was self-defense. So much to talk about here. Let me bring in criminal defense attorney Natalie Whittingham Burrell to talk about this. Bring her into the conversation. Natalie, so good to see you.

Thanks for coming on. I usually ask my guests, their initial impressions. I really can't wait to hear yours in a case like this. we've covered cases of judges allegedly acting badly this one's new for me what's your uh what are your thoughts on this one hey jesse it's nice to see you again uh yeah new for me heard of judges shooting people but not twice you have you have i have i have okay judge's shooting people it's happened you know but not two separate incidents that's definitely a person for me and both being significant others I wonder if they're going to look at that case again

where she shot her husband in the groin. But no, this is absolutely wild and it seems like she's had some issues on the bench leading up to this. I don't know if she's going to come back from that suspension ever. Let me ask you a question. Before we even get into the aspect of the case,

the fact that she's facing the controversy with the suspension now accused of attempted murder, even if she was acquitted or this case was dismissed, any which way she could remain on the bench? I just don't see it. I don't think that anyone would have any confidence, attorneys, or litigants that she would be fair and impartial and a rationed and reasonable judge because she doesn't seem to be a rationed and reasonable person. I feel a little bad even saying that because, you know, she's presumed to be innocent. It's just too many incidents for one person.

I've covered a case recently where I had another guest on and that judge was accused of some serious wrongdoing. I think it was allegedly beating up a family member, and the judge, the person I interviewed then said that if the judge is not convicted, could remain on the bench. There was nothing in that state's laws that would actually prevent the judge from being or having to step down. Just interesting to think about. But let me ask you about this legal case. So in a state, her attorney said, quote, Judge McKnight is innocent of the alleged charges. She did not shoot Mr. McCoy. Judge McNight looks forward to the whole story being told.

Judge McKnight intends to vigorously defend herself in the same. matter. She believes in the criminal justice system, and once all of the facts in this matter are brought to light, she is confident that she will be cleared of any wrongdoing. As this matter works its way through the court, it is important to keep in mind that Judge McNight is innocent unless the Commonwealth can prove otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt. The charges are currently presented, are merely allegations, and nothing more. We ask that the public keep an open mind and reserve judgment in this case until all of the facts are presented now. An attorney, by law, doesn't have to present a statement like this to the public.

They did hear. And the fact that outright said she didn't do this, not, you know, she looks forward to clearing her name or she looks forward to having her day in court rather vague. And there were aspects of the vague, but signaling there is another side to this story. What do you make of that? I think that's a risk, not one that I'm usually, that I'm ever willing to take in my own practice. I know when a case is high profile, there is a pressure to put out your client's side of the story, especially because whatever the prosecution releases to the public, a lot of people will accept that as the truth.

But you kind of want to counteract that because there's a jury pool, whatever the case may be, it's not worth making statements that can later on be used against your client. You paint your client into a corner. Your words getting it picked. It's just not worth it, in my opinion. And you're right here, Jesse, because it goes from that she have later on changed her mind and said that she was acting in self-defense or that, you know, some other justification was there other than I didn't do it. And so you want to be really careful not to make statements where it's not necessary.

And here it was not necessary. I'm going to ask you a difficult question because you haven't been presented any evidence in this case, just what I've been putting forward. How would you defend it? Well, I would call into a question a lot of the forensics that they're saying so far. So they're saying gunshot residue is on her hands. That's easily transferred from touching the person who was shot. So that doesn't mean that she shot a gun.

Also, they're saying that the way that the bullet entered his head, it was like it was like a foot away or some distance away. That can be called into question. So I would attack the forensics. And then you're going to attack the credibility and the memory of the man that was shot, her ex. Basically, he can't remember because he was shot. He wants to believe that he wouldn't shoot himself, but he's wrong. Or he has a motive to lie on my client because they were in a. contentious breakup and he wanted to get rid of her and so he's willing to frame her even though

he doesn't remember how it is that he got shot so all of those are little things that you could point at to raise reasonable doubt i would imagine presenting an argument that someone shot himself with the intent of not killing themselves but injuring themselves that's tough that's tough you don't have to say that you say he just meant to shoot himself but now that he's alive. He doesn't have any problem. Okay. Okay. But I would say, I would say, all right, you know, he wanted to frame his ex-girlfriend as a way to get her back or, excuse me, as a way to get her out of the house. Why didn't he shoot himself on the shoulder? He shoots himself in the head. I mean,

what are we talking about here? It's not funny, but absolutely true. Absolutely true. But all of that does go to his memory and his credibility, right? They weren't on the best of terms. And so he doesn't remember that he shot himself. So you don't have to make him malicious. He doesn't remember that he shot himself, but he's drawing a conclusion. Like, the prosecution wants you to draw a conclusion. They want you to leap to the conclusion that she's the shooter, and she's not. And he left to that conclusion because he's in a bad relationship with her.

But he doesn't remember shooting. By the way, this judge story is pretty nuts. And look, I don't love beating up on my legal profession. So let me do a 180 here. Let me highlight a superstar in our industry. Attorney, Tom, and Associates are great sponsor of this episode of Sidebar. Finding the right lawyer in personal injury cases, that is not easy. Finding somebody that you can trust, that is invaluable.

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when I hear about some sort of violent act in a relationship where one wants to break up with the other or one is cheating on the other or something like that, not that there's the allegation here. I think of heat of passion. We know about it in law school. It's a way to downgrade murder to manslaughter. This is a case of attempted murder. Would a heat of passion argument work here that she was so enraged.

that he was trying to break up with her, that she fired a gun on him in this, she wasn't thinking clearly. Would that work in an attempted murder case like this? Yeah. So even though the actus reus was not completed, even though the person did not die, thankfully, the intent at the time of the commission of the act is still the same. And that was not really an intent to kill or not a premeditation, but being so overwrought with emotion that you react in the moment without. planning it that would still so a lack of intent to kill or a lack of premeditation or heat of passion however you want to phrase that mental state that would still be at play and so it would be the attempted manslaughter of another person or it could even mitigate it down to an assault

like what we have in maryland a first degree assault sometimes you can mitigate an attempted murder down to a first degree assault so that that's a possibility as well but it matters that he was sleeping when when she did this or allegedly did this right i mean it would be one thing if they were in the middle of an argument or he was holding some sort of weapon. If he's asleep, that feels, again, very difficult. Yeah, that's very difficult. I mean, there's many reasons he's vulnerable. He's not able to defend himself and he is not currently a threat to you.

I would look out for now, I know her attorney, he painted her into a corner, but put that statement aside, another potential defense could be a battered women's syndrome, which mitigates down an attempted murder to an attempted manslaughter or sometimes. a certain degree of assault. If she was the victim of domestic violence in a previous relationship, if she were to, this is completely hypothetical, but she says that she acted in self-defense in her previous relationship of domestic violence. If she were to have in this relationship alleged that she also suffered domestic violence,

then that cooling off period where the person that was injured got to, you know, go to sleep, laid down and they're no longer seeming to be a threat. That's when the battered woman acts out and shoots the person or tries to kill the person. then that would be a defense that they could get a mental health professional to back that claim up. So that's one of the more reasons why that statement really was ill-advised because there's a plethora of defenses that are available to her without that state. And correct me if I'm wrong, the reason I bring up this idea of pleading guilty or arguing for a lesser charge is because for attempted murder in that state,

my understanding it could be up to 40 years in prison because you're dealing with serious bodily injuries. Am I understanding that could be a potential punishment? Yes, I looked and I saw that that was their maximum possible penalty. And even though she obviously wouldn't have a criminal record at sentencing, almost anything is considered. So the fact that she previously shot a romantic partner, the fact that she has issues with her credibility and her job as a judge, all of those things are going to come into play when considering a sentence. But will that come, if she goes to trial on this, the fact that she, the charges were not filed for her. allegedly shooting her, her ex or a estranged husband, can that come in in a trial? She wasn't convicted of that.

No, no, no. It wouldn't come in at a trial. It would come in at sentencing. If she were to be convicted, anything could be considered at sentencing. Even though it was self-defense? Well, they say it was self-defense. Allegedly, it was self-defense, you know. This is the thing, you know, when it comes to things like sentencing and bond reviews,

whether or not you're going to let somebody out, the judge has a wide discretion in what they can consider, You know, and they can say like, you know, you weren't ultimately charged with it, but I have concerns about your safety to the community because you are willing to act out with a gun when faced with adversarial situations and it's concerning. And so that might warrant a higher sentence. I guess the more important question is in light of what has just happened, do investigators look at that old case and say, wait a minute, that might not have been self-defense. They didn't remember, she wasn't acquitted, didn't go to trial, just doesn't, wasn't pursued. Right. They definitely could turn around and say that it's completely in the police and the prosecution's discretion if they want to look at the case. The case is kind of old now. And really they could have had some type of video showing the guy attacking her or something like that. You really don't know. But if maybe they gave her the benefit of the doubt because, oh, it's a judge and she's saying that she was reacting to domestic violence, it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility for them to try and reinvestigate that case. By the way, prosecuting a judge, former judge, suspended judge, is that going to be difficult to do for a prosecutor? We've talked about difficulties of trying to prosecute members of law enforcement before or celebrities.

But the idea of prosecuting a judge in your experience, is that tough? So it is, it's a minefield because number one, you're dealing with someone who's used to being in a situation or position of authority, right? And so they could be the type that wants to run the show. They're going to have resources at their disposal to have excellent counsel to be prepared at all moments to contest every single little thing that the prosecution tries to do as they should. And they're going to be connected. And so there is a little bit of social pressure depending on size of the community about prosecuting someone who may be in the good graces of the general wider legal community. So that's a issue aside from the legal process. So that could all, like you said, celebrities, police officers, judges, all hard people to prosecute.

What a case. My gosh. Unbelievable. Natalie Whittingham Burrell, although you've seen cases of judges shooting people, I have not. This could be my first. Hopefully it's my last. But we shall say she is innocent until proven guilty. We'll probably hear more facts as they develop.

Curious to hear the defense's argument. But thanks so much for coming on. Such a pleasure. Thank you, Jesse. I appreciate it. All right, everybody. is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us.

As always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. Apple Podcasts or Spotify.