Police:19-year-old stabbed man to death in abandoned house

In the city’s West End

Witness statements and a shoeprint on a victim’s torso led to the arrest of a suspect in the killing of a man at an abandoned house in the city’s West End, according to police.

Dominic Johnson, 19, is charged with homicide and tampering with evidence in connection with the stabbing of Marc Kovach, 37, whose body was found on a porch on Steuben Street just before noon Thursday.

At the scene, investigators noted the imprint of a shoe across Kovach’s bare chest and stomach. The same day, a witness at a recovery center called police to report information about the stabbing.

That person said a man identified only as Witness 2 approached the person a day before about the stabbing, according to a criminal complaint in the case. Witness 2 allegedly had been at the home with a man known as “Dom,” along with Dom’s girlfriend and a third witness. Witness 2 said a fight broke out and “Dom and his girlfriend started stomping and stabbing [Kovach].”

Witness 2 said Dom — later identified as Johnson — gave him the knife and his shoes to get rid of, according to the complaint. The witness reported cleaning the knife and tossing it into a river and then dropping the shoes into a Downtown trash bin.

Another witness, this one identified in the complaint as Witness 3, told investigators he’d been at the abandoned West End home when Kovach was killed. According to the complaint, that witness said Johnson beat Kovach into unconsciousness and dragged him to the porch. From there, the witness said, he heard Johnson “yell some sort of ‘demonic wording’ and then heard slashing and stabbing sounds outside.”

Witness 3 said he also saw Johnson give the other witness the knife to get rid of.

In an interview with detectives Thursday afternoon, Johnson admitted he’d been at the abandoned house with Kovach, investigators said. He told them he’d wrestled with Kovach, but Kovach had eventually left with Witness 2, according to the complaint. Johnson said he never saw Kovach after that.

Johnson told investigators he was wearing the same shoes he’d been wearing days prior at the West End house, according to the complaint. Detectives said the pattern on the sole of the shoes was consistent with the shoeprint found on Kovach. The complaint did not address the discrepancy between what Witness 2 said about throwing the shoes away and Johnson saying he was wearing them during the police interview.

Johnson was being held in the Allegheny County Jail, according to police. Court records did not list an attorney.