Judge denies Ken Konias' request for new trial

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 has been denied a new trial.

In February, 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.

This week, Konias had requested a new trial, but on Friday, Judge David Cashman denied that motion.

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

Cashman, in convicting Konias, said the testimony during the six-day non-jury 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.

WPXI