Woman charged with killing boyfriend told police he beat her

A woman who police say fatally stabbed her boyfriend this month on the South Side did so, she told them, because she was sick of being “beat on.”

Cassandra Locke, 52, of McKeesport, had a preliminary hearing Wednesday before District Judge James Hanley Jr., who held a homicide charge against her for Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

Ms. Locke is accused of killing Daryl Waite, 49, of McKeesport while the couple visited her cousin in the Brew House Loft Apartments on South 21st Street on Nov. 7.

Police were called to the lobby of the building just before 11 p.m. that evening after another resident found Mr. Waite unresponsive and bleeding. He was wearing only boxer shorts and socks and had been stabbed in the chest.

Pittsburgh police Detective James McGee said that when officers arrived at the scene that night, they were able to follow a blood trail from the lobby into the elevator and up to the third-floor apartment, where they believe Mr. Waite was stabbed. Officers found a knife, wrapped in a Tshirt, in a trash room on that same

floor.

Ms. Locke, however was gone.

Several hours later, police received a tip that Ms. Locke was outside the apartment building. Officers from Zone 3 arrested her.

Detective McGee testified that when he arrived at the homicide office after 4 a.m. that day, Ms. Locke was asleep on a couch there.

When he woke her, he said she opened her eyes and said, “‘I did it. I’m tired of him beating on me. I stabbed him.’ “

Defense attorney Thomas N. Farrell asked the detective if pictures were taken of any injuries on Ms. Locke, and Detective McGee said yes, but that she showed him only a small mark on her forearm.

District Judge Hanley refused to consider a request by Mr. Farrell for a bond reduction.

The defense argued that the case against Ms. Locke, who is being held at the Allegheny County Jail without bail, does not rise to either first- or second-degree murder, and that therefore his client is entitled to be released pending trial.

District Judge Hanley told Mr. Farrell he needed to argue his case in Common Pleas Court.