A Pennsylvania husband who testified before a jury that drug use made him paranoid his wife was cheating on him and that shooting her in the back of the head inside a U-Haul facility was an accident was found guilty of first-degree murder on Thursday.
Alfred Keith Steele, 44, placed Apple AirTags inside Kelly Steele’s purse and car to track her movements before he shot her to death at a U-Haul storage facility in Lower Burrell within Westmoreland County, located northeast of and over 20 miles away from downtown Pittsburgh.
Kelly Steele, an Apollo resident, an “avid” Pittsburgh Steelers fan and a grandmother who was just 41 years old at the time she was murdered, was not cheating on her husband, her devastated daughter Emily Steele testified at the four-day trial, WTAE reported.
In a statement to the local ABC affiliate, Emily said her mother “was as close to perfection as a person could get” and that she “put up with things throughout her marriage that no person should ever have to go through.”
Though the conviction was the “justice she has deserved for so long,” Kelly Steele’s daughter said, it “doesn’t take away the pain of her being gone or fills her absence[.]”
Emily Steele rejected as “simply untrue” the defendant’s cheating claims.
“We will not rest until her truth is heard and until the world knows Kelly Steele was a loyal, forgiving, and loving woman who will live on through her children,” Emily said. “She was the best mom and best friend that anyone could ask for and now she may rest in peace.”
Alfred Keith Steele pictured after his arrest and perp walk on May 14, 2022 (KDKA/screengrab), Kelly Steele (inset right) in an obituary photo.
Prosecutors said that defendant Steele turned himself in and confessed after shooting his wife on May 14, 2022.
When the triggerman was arrested and perp-walked, he had nothing to say.
#NEW: Alfred Steele is now heading to the county jail after his preliminary arraignment. He’s charged with homicide & robbery in the death of Kelly Steele. @KDKA pic.twitter.com/YbnkKkdAJw
— Erika Stanish (@Erika_Stanish) May 15, 2022
At trial more than a year later, the defendant did not dispute that he shot Kelly Steele. What he did claim is that it was an accident.
The defendant told jurors that he thought the murder weapon wasn’t loaded and, in any event, wouldn’t fire because it was broken, but jurors clearly weren’t persuaded by that explanation.
The since-convicted killer told a story that he and the victim were rummaging through clothes inside the U-Haul storage unit and that he believed Kelly Steele was trying to a hide a shirt from him, confirming in his own mind that the victim was cheating on him. He claimed he became enraged when Kelly said “Maybe it ain’t for you.” He also claimed he did not recall pulling the trigger.
Alfred Keith Steele mug shot (Westmoreland County Prison)
The Tribune-Review reported that when Steele confessed to the shooting, he said he and his wife were “arguing” and “yelling at each other between storage units.”
“I never struck my wife. That’s why I can’t believe what I did. I can’t believe it happened,” Steele said, also blaming the victim. “She just kept going on and on. (It) just went awry.”
Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole W. Ziccarelli said in her statement on the guilty verdict that a “mother lost her daughter and two children lost their mother,” referring to Emily and the victim’s son Ean Steele.
“I want to thank the jury for their time and consideration shown to this case that meant so much to the family of Kelly Steele. A mother lost her daughter and two children lost their mother, and while this verdict will not bring her back, I hope this brings them a sense of closure and justice,” Ziccarelli said. “I am also grateful for the professionalism and dedication shown by Assistant District Attorneys Adam Barr and Katie Ranker who prosecuted this case on behalf of the Commonwealth.”
The convicted murderer’s sentence will be handed down within three months time, the DA added.
As recently as October, a nationwide lawsuit was filed against Apple over their AirTags, claiming that the technology has become stalkers’ “weapon of choice” and that the “consequences have been as severe as possible: multiple murders have occurred in which the murderer used an AirTag to track the victim.”
One of the news stories cited in the lawsuit was Law&Crime’s coverage of an Indiana case, where, as in the Steele case, the perpetrator tracked the victim by placing an Apple AirTag in his car.
Many of the cases mentioned in the lawsuit involved ex-husbands and ex-boyfriends stalking their ex-wives and ex-girlfriends.
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