PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A jury has found 20-year-old Miles Pfeffer guilty of all charges in the February 2023 murder of Temple University police Sgt. Christopher Fitzgerald.
Pfeffer faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison for the first-degree murder conviction. The judge also added 22.5 to 45 years for related charges, including robbery and carjacking.
Jurors returned the verdict in less than 20 minutes Wednesday afternoon, convicting Pfeffer on all charges, including first-degree murder, murder of a law enforcement officer, and carjacking, among other related charges in the shooting death of Fitzgerald, 31.
Prosecutors presented autopsy photos, ballistic evidence, and DNA to the jury Wednesday morning.
Fitzgerald’s widow sat with his parents, sobbing as prosecutors flashed photos of her husband’s six bullet wounds, in the cheek, chin, neck, shoulder, and armpit through the medical examiner’s testimony.
A DNA expert and firearms expert testified to additional forensics: Pfeffer’s DNA was found inside the car that was carjacked after the shooting, and inside a jacket found at Pfeffer’s dad’s house. The firearms expert concluded that Fitzgerald never fired any shots, and all the bullets were from the same weapon.
Video evidence, body camera footage, and eyewitness testimony, including that from Pfeffer’s brother and friend, helped prosecutors lay out their timeline of events.
A crime scene officer testified that a green bag Miles Pfeffer is seen with in the video was later recovered from his mother’s home in Bucks County.
The defense did not present any evidence to the jury. His attorneys admitted Pfeffer was the shooter, but argued he acted out of fear and that the killing was not premeditated.
Through the last three days, jurors have heard from about a dozen investigators, viewed the shooting and subsequent carjacking on video, and body camera footage of the aftermath.