Life in prison for killing pregnant girlfriend, unborn child

M OMENTS after a Philadelphia jury on Monday found him guilty of the first-degree murder of his pregnant girlfriend, Tyrell Hart quoted Scripture, thanked God and opined that his victim was in a better place.

"It may seem like I lost. But actually, I won because before I came here, I was a lost soul," Hart, 22, said before being led away to begin serving a life sentence without parole.

The Common Pleas Court jury of eight women and four men convicted him of the fatal Oct. 14, 2009, shooting of Selene Raynor, 21. The jury also found him guilty of third-degree murder in the death of the couple's unborn child.

Raynor, a West Chester University chemistry major who sang in the campus gospel choir, was slain when she met with Hart to discuss the pregnancy.

Not wanting to become a father, he shot Raynor once in the face and left her to die behind the wheel of her Jeep Cherokee, parked not far from their respective homes in Strawberry Mansion.

Hart made two police statements shortly after the slayings. In the first, he said that the shooting had been an accident. In the second, he confessed to shooting Raynor because he did not want to become a father at age 19.

"My client made some terrible mistakes," said defense attorney David Rudenstein.

Assistant District Attorney Deborah Watson-Stokes said: "It's a horrible thing to have a young lady cut off in the prime of her life. When the defendant shot her in the head, he destroyed everything that she was and everything that she was going to be."

Six months after Raynor's murder, West Chester University awarded her degree posthumously to her family.

"That was a very proud moment for all of us," Danette Raynor, the victim's mother, said after leaving court.

"I'm happy that Mr. Hart has found God. I'm very happy about that because I had been praying for his soul. And I just thank God for justice today."