Man with long history of arrests is convicted of murder
Rudolph McGriff was convicted by a jury in the April 2013 shooting death of Malisha Jessie.
A 40-YEAR-OLD man with a long history of arrests on drug and murder charges yesterday was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and weapons offenses in the 2013 shooting death of one of his girlfriends.
Rudolph McGriff was immediately sentenced to life in prison without parole by Common Pleas Judge Steven Geroff.
This was his first murder conviction.
Assistant District Attorney Andrew Notaristefano said McGriff was convicted in the April 2013 shooting death of Malisha Jessie, 29, after a two-week trial.
Jessie, McGriff's on-and-off girlfriend, was shot outside McGriff's house on Bailey Street near Willard in Tioga.
Jessie was angry that McGriff had a new girlfriend, Femi Johnson, Notaristefano said. She tried to "catch him in the act" with the new girlfriend and had gone to the Bailey Street house.
In the early morning of April 7, 2013, Jessie and McGriff argued outside of the house, and McGriff shot her, the prosecutor said.
McGriff's attorney, Richard DeSipio, said afterward that he was "disappointed in the verdict" and will file an appeal.
In 2004, McGriff, originally of West Philly, was one of seven alleged gang members accused of murder and related charges and then freed from prison after the state Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings that the District Attorney's Office violated Pennsylvania's "speedy trial" rule. The state's top court upheld an earlier order by Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner dismissing the charges.
The seven were released from custody. They had been arrested in 1997 and 1998 and were charged with participating in murders during turf wars with other gangs over control of drug corners in Mantua. McGriff was facing three murder charges that were dismissed.
Earlier, McGriff had been acquitted of two prior murders.
Earlier this year, McGriff's brothers made the news.
In May, police arrested and charged Anthony McGriff, who is in his early 50s, in the stabbing death of his brother John "J.R." McGriff, 35. The elder McGriff faces trial on charges of murder and possession of an instrument of a crime. (His online court docket indicates he is 50, but other public records say he is 52.)
He is accused of killing his younger brother on May 3 in the second-floor hallway of the home both men shared on Christian Street near 58th in West Philly.
Investigators have said the fatal attack took place as the men argued about Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s boxing victory over Manny Pacquiao after watching the championship boxing match on TV hours earlier.