A judge Wednesday morning imposed on a Munhall man a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole in the 2018 shooting death of his girlfriend.
Darion Abel, 27, was found guilty in September of first-degree murder, burglary and a firearms charge in the death of Miranda Grimm-Gilarski, 19.
Prosecutors said Abel shot Grimm-Gilarski 17 times on Nov. 17, 2018, in her Munhall home. He then drove directly to the Munhall police station and turned himself in.
Attorney Patrick Thomassey, who represents Abel, did not challenge that narrative but maintained his client was not mentally stable at the time of the attack.
Abel took the witness stand Wednesday and spent nearly 10 minutes reading a detailed apology to Grimm-Gilarski, her family and others.
“You’d say, ‘Babe, you have a lot of unaddressed issues. But it’s OK. We can fix them,’” Abel said, crying to the point his words were barely audible, in a section of the apology directed toward his victim.
“I wasn’t man enough to face my problems,” Abel said. “I should have listened. I should have gotten the help I needed. And none of this would have happened.”
A jury deliberated for about five hours over two days earlier this fall before convicting Abel.
While Thomassey had argued during trial that his client was guilty but mentally ill, an expert witness testified Abel was able to form the intent to kill prior to the shooting.
Dennis Grimm, the victim’s father, opened the hearing by holding a studio portrait photograph of his daughter.
“First and foremost, I want everybody to see this picture,” Grimm said.
He turned and faced Abel.
“This,” he said, “is all we’ve got left.”
“No sentence can ever bring Miranda back,” Grimm said. “But I do ask the court to understand the magnitude of the life that was stolen from us.”
Grimm-Gilarski had been in what one witness described as a “rocky” relationship with Abel when police say he killed her while she was babysitting her stepsister.