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Guilty Plea Expected in Josh Kruger Murder

Plus, all four suspects in last week's bus-stop shooting are now in custody.

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Philadelphia journalist and activist josh kruger, who was murdered at his Point Breeze home in 2023

Philadelphia journalist and activist Josh Kruger, who was murdered at his Point Breeze home in 2023 (photo via Facebook/Josh Kruger)

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Josh Kruger’s Suspected Killer Is Expected to Plead Guilty

It’s been a while since I updated you on the murder of Philadelphia journalist and activist Josh Kruger, who previously wrote for Philly Mag and was also a personal friend of mine. This silence has been because there hasn’t been much to report, with the case against Kruger’s suspected killer, Robert Davis, 19, making its way through the court system.

But on Tuesday, we saw some major developments.

Davis, who allegedly shot and killed Kruger at Kruger’s Point Breeze home last October, appeared in court for a hearing yesterday. He was scheduled for a preliminary hearing, at which a judge would have decided if there was enough evidence in the case to move forward. But Davis waived his right to that hearing, and lawyers in the case have indicated that he intends to plead guilty to some of the charges against him, including a lesser-degree murder charge, as well as charges in an unrelated incident.

Kruger’s murder was a complicated story.

National outlets quickly picked up the killing. CNN ran this headline: “Philadelphia Journalist and Advocate Josh Kruger Shot and Killed at Home.” The New York Times went with this: “Philadelphia Journalist Is Killed in His Home.”

But the narrative soon took a dark turn. The family of Davis claimed that Kruger, who was 39 when he died, had been sexually abusing Davis since he was 15 and that Kruger had been providing Davis with drugs. Police found methamphetamines in the home of Kruger, who had long battled substance abuse. Court documents described an “intimate relationship” between Kruger and Davis. And police confirmed as much, saying they found troubling messages between the two on Kruger’s cell phone.

“I’m hoping to God that there is no truth to this,” Kruger’s brother Zachary told me shortly after the allegations emerged. “But what has become clear to us is that Josh was in a bad place. We’re just not sure how bad of a place. I went through his house after police called me. And there are certain things I found that make it clear there were problems with Josh.”

Davis is currently scheduled to appear back in court on April 2nd.

By the Numbers

4: Suspects now in custody for last week’s bus-stop shooting, according to a police department announcement on Wednesday morning. Police arrested the third suspect on Tuesday and gave the fourth suspect, whose identity they knew, until Wednesday morning to turn himself in. He did just that.

7: With the forthcoming closure of the 20th and Hamilton Wawa, number of Philadelphia Wawas to close since 2020. But this closure wasn’t Wawa’s choice.

30: States that now have fully legal recreational weed. And now Delaware wants to offer deli-style marijuana sales. As for backwards Pennsylvania? Recreational weed is still not a thing. We apparently stand with our brothers and sisters in Florida and Alabama.

Local Talent

Philly rapper Tierra Whack made a big, big splash in the music world in 2018 with a visual album of 15 songs that clocked in at under 15 minutes in total. NPR called the album the 10th best album of the year. (Not hip-hop album—album, period.) And Billboard ranked it in the top 20 overall albums of the year. Not bad! We waited with bated breath for a new album from her. And then we waited some more. Finally, this week, Tierra Whack is back after way too long a wait. And it turns out she had a very good reason for keeping us waiting. Read more about her here.

All the Restaurant News You Can Handle

Kensington Quarters is closing. Wm. Mulherin’s Sons is expanding. And what would happen if you combine Vietnamese and Italian food? We’re about to find out. More on all that here.

And From the Woe-Is-Us Sports Desk …

We were in the Knicks’ house last night in a replay of Sunday’s low-score Sixers win, and Nick Nurse started Kyle Lowry, Mo Bamba, Buddy Hield, Tobias Harris and — hooray! — Tyrese Maxey, back from concussion protocol. New York had the quicker start, up 26-14 at the end of the first quarter, but at least Tyrese had hit a couple of treys. The second quarter wasn’t much better, but Kelly Oubre Jr., in as a sub, had a lovely dunk that put Isaiah Hartenstein in the hole with three fouls early on, and the Sixers had an 8-0 run that cut the lead to seven. Temporarily. It was the Knicks, 59-41, at the half. Not good. Harris had yet to score.

No Sixers seemed to want to shoot the ball as the third began, which makes it hard to climb out of a hole. But they sliced the lead to 10 with a 7-0 run — again, temporarily. Our guys were clearly frustrated, and so was this fan as the Sixers were down 87-61 at the end of the third. “It is all Knicks,” the ESPN announcer said, and it wasn’t a lie.

Did the Phillies Play?

Nope, they had a day off. But they face the Tigers today at 1:05.

Any Doop News?

That, uh, didn’t go well, either. In their rematch against Pachuca, the Union fell well short of reaching the finals of the Champions Cup. It was the worst loss in the club’s history. No doop for you.

And in College Hoops?

Finally, some good news! La Salle used a second-half comeback to just barely squeak past the George Washington Colonials in the first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament yesterday.

And just like that, tourney season is upon us. On today’s slate, we’ve got St. Joe’s vs. George Mason in the Atlantic 10 tournament at 11:30 a.m. (I know; morning b-ball!); Temple facing UTSA in the ACC tournament at 3 p.m.; and in the Big East tournament, Villanova, seeded sixth, goes up against 11th-ranked DePaul at 9 p.m.

The Flyers also played.

All Philly Today sports coverage is provided by Sandy Hingston.

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