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Defiant armored truck guard killer ‘mouths off' to judge during sentencing hearing

PITTSBURGH — A former armored truck guard who killed his co-worker, stole $2.3 million and was holed up in a Florida beach house with drugs and hookers was sentenced on Tuesday in an Allegheny County courtroom.

A judge sentenced Ken Konias Jr., 24, of Dravosburg to life in prison without the possibility of parole automatically because District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.'s office, after consulting with the victim's family, did not seek the death penalty.
Channel 11's Alan Jennings was in the courtroom for Konias' sentencing hearing and reported that Konias was defiant and downright disrepectful to the judge. 

“May I suggest that you not lecture me and get on with the sentencing?” Konias said to judge David Cashman.

Jennings reported that Cashman demontrated "incredible restraint" but went on to say that the vicitm's family spared him his life by not seeking the death penalty.

Cashman in November convicted Konias of the first-degree murder of Michael Haines, 31, of East McKeesport.

"Our only statement is that we thank you all for respecting our privacy. We are gratefully relieved that this is over, and Mike will always be deeply missed,” said Ann Haines, the victim’s mother.

Ann Haines clutched a framed photograph of her son during the sentencing.

Konias' attorney, Charles LoPresti, argued that his client's erratic behavior and haphazard flight after the murder show he did not plan the crime.

Cashman, in convicting Konias, said the testimony during the six-day nonjury trial showed he is a greedy and desperate wannabe who lied to friends about owning cars, sent pictures of mounds of cash to his girlfriend and often talked about the 2010 movie “The Town,” in which Ben Affleck robs an armored car.

Konias shot Haines on Feb. 28, 2012, ditched the Garda Cash Logistics truck beneath the 31st Street Bridge in the Strip District and drove his Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle to his parents' house, where he showered and changed clothes.

He left between $100,000 and $200,000 under his father's Cadillac, $10,000 in a friend's work boot and $25,000 on his grandmother's grave in Munhall before driving south.

Along the way, he called several friends, begging them to come with him. None took him up on the offer, but he made new acquaintances in Florida, including a cabbie whom he paid nearly $800,000 to chauffeur him around Pompano Beach, find him prostitutes, get rid of his SUV and help him plan an escape to Haiti.

Other new people in his life included a pimp who rented him the beach house for $17,000, one prostitute who took $92,000 from him and another whom he paid $2,000 a night.

When he was arrested on April 23, 2012, Konias had about $1 million in a suitcase, a Rolex, a movie ticket stub for “The Hunger Games” and a bottle of Gucci Guilty cologne with him.

Channel 11's news exchange partners at TribLIVE contributed to this report.

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