Table of Contents

Broken Badges: Pennsylvania Judge Convicted of Attempted Murder After Shooting Boyfriend in the Head

By James Seidel | Crime and Cask News Network – Broken Badges: Pennsylvania Edition

HARRISBURG, PA — Broken Badges: A Pennsylvania magisterial judge—already no stranger to controversy—was convicted this week of attempted homicide and aggravated assault after shooting her boyfriend in the head while he slept. The bullet passed through his skull, leaving him permanently blind in one eye.

The disgraced judge, Sonya M. McKnight, 58, was convicted Wednesday following just two hours of jury deliberation in Lancaster County, where the case was moved due to widespread conflicts of interest in her home jurisdiction of Dauphin County.

McKnight, once elected to uphold the law, is now likely to spend the next 30 to 60 years behind bars after the jury found her guilty of firing a registered handgun into the face of Michael McCoy, her 55-year-old boyfriend, in February 2024.

She was immediately taken into custody, handcuffed, and removed from the courtroom. Due to her past role as a judge in Dauphin County, she is being held outside the region for security concerns.

Broken Badges: The Night of the Shooting

According to prosecutors with the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office, McKnight and McCoy had a rocky, year-long relationship. On Feb. 4, 2024, McCoy ended it and asked her to leave his home. She refused. By Feb. 10, tensions had boiled over.

That night, McCoy went to dinner and believed McKnight was following him, a suspicion police later confirmed. When he returned home, she was asleep on his couch. He told her he planned to call her mother the next morning to help move her out.

At around 1 a.m., McCoy awoke with “massive head pain” and screamed in blindness. He’d been shot in the right temple—the bullet exiting through the left side of his head. He survived, miraculously, but lost sight in one eye.

Broken Badges: The 911 Call and Evidence Trail

McKnight called 911 using McCoy’s phone but couldn’t explain what had happened, telling dispatchers she had been asleep and heard screaming.

However, investigators found:

Gunshot residue on McKnight’s hands
A firearm registered to McKnight at the scene
No signs of forced entry
McCoy’s repeated statements: “I did not shoot myself.”

A forensic report concluded the shot was fired from approximately 12 inches away.

Broken Badges: A Troubled Past on the Bench

This is not McKnight’s first brush with scandal—or gunfire:

2019: McKnight shot her estranged husband in the groin. The incident was ruled self-defense and no charges were filed.
2020: Charged with official oppression and obstruction for interfering with her son’s drug arrest; acquitted in 2021.
2023: Suspended without pay over allegations of:
- “Theft of time”
- Ignoring recusal orders
- Using Facebook to sell products
- Failing to report to work
- Refusing to repay a $2,100 personal loan

She is currently under unpaid suspension from the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board.

Broken Badges:️ Fallout and Jurisdictional Chaos

The Dauphin County DA’s Office and the Pennsylvania Attorney General both recused themselves from prosecuting the case due to their professional connections to McKnight. The Cumberland County DA took over.

“This case illustrates a devastating abuse of public trust and judicial power,” said legal analyst James Seidel, editor of Crime and Cask’s Broken Badges series. “It’s one thing to violate the law, another to fire a bullet through someone’s head while wearing a robe sworn to uphold it.”

Broken Badges: What’s Next

McKnight now awaits sentencing by Judge David C. Norton, who accepted her guilty plea. She faces a maximum sentence of 60 years for attempted murder and aggravated assault.

McCoy, who miraculously survived the shooting, was released from the hospital on February 11, 2024.