North Side man gets life in prison for 2021 shooting death in Carrick
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A Pittsburgh man will spend the rest of his life in prison after he was sentenced Thursday for killing the woman he had been dating.
A jury convicted Donte Moss, 44, of the North Side of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm in the March 27, 2021, death of Nalene Harrell.
The murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Thomas E. Flaherty also ordered Moss to serve an additional 10 to 20 years on the gun count.
Defense attorney Aaron Sontz said his client maintains his innocence.
Police found Harrell, 38, lying on the sidewalk on Linnview Avenue near Triana Street just after midnight.
When police arrived, Moss was hysterical and standing over Harrell, a criminal complaint said.
Harrell died at the scene.
Police searched a black Ford Fusion parked haphazardly in the street and found a black cell phone under the gas pedal, another phone on the driver’s seat, a black pistol and holster on the front passenger seat a spent shell casing on the rear passenger floor.
Moss later spoke to detectives and told them he and Harrell had been dating for several months and had been at a concert that evening on the North Side.
On the way home, Moss said Harrell became upset with him over remarks he made about her behavior at the concert.
Moss told police that Harrell needed to go to the bathroom, so he pulled over for her. Police noted Harrell’s home was less than a mile away.
“Moss stated that while Harrell was outside the vehicle, she pulled her firearm from her right hip area, and the firearm fired,” police wrote in the criminal complaint.
She was struck in the face.
Moss said he took the gun and put it in the car.
According to Harrell’s autopsy, the bullet traveled at a downward angle and there was no evidence it was fired from close range. Instead, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said, it was fired from no more than 3 1/2 feet away.
Sontz, the defense lawyer, said that the prosecution’s evidence against Moss was circumstantial.
“The case against Mr. Moss was speculative,” Sontz said. “The jury obviously disagreed.”