‘Karli was my world’: Family remembers slain pregnant woman at killer’s sentencing

Isaac Smith of McKeesport gets two life terms for killing Karli Short and her unborn daughter.

By PAULA REED WARD
TribLive

Karli Short loved Harry Potter, witches, warlocks and fairies.

Her favorite color was green. She enjoyed taking care of people, and the news that she was pregnant brought her boundless joy.

Those are the things Short’s family wants the world to remember about the 26-year-old who was shot and killed nearly five years ago in McKeesport.

On Tuesday, the man who took her life — who police said wrongly believed Short’s baby was his — was ordered to serve two consecutive life terms in prison with no chance for parole.

Isaac Christopher Smith, 30, of McKeesport chose not to speak on his own behalf, he said, on his lawyer’s advice. He plans to appeal.

A jury Friday didn’t buy the defense case that Smith was innocent, convicting him after just 90 minutes of deliberation on two counts of first-degree murder.

Short, 26, was found shot once in the head in a yard off Furnace Alley in McKeesport on the morning of Sept. 13, 2021. She was five months pregnant.

The investigation quickly turned toward Smith, who Short thought may have been the father of her child.

Smith voluntarily went to Allegheny County police headquarters that afternoon, he said, to clear the air and make sure officers knew he wasn’t involved.

He told police he and Short had reconnected via social media a couple of years earlier, and though they had been together a few times, they were not in a relationship.

Smith told police he had a long-term girlfriend who had just met his parents.

As the investigation unfolded, however, police learned Smith had bought a gun six weeks before the shooting and that he had a burner phone used only to contact Short.

At trial, the prosecution said Smith was living a double life — that he didn’t want to upset his church-going parents with an unplanned pregnancy, and that he killed Short to cover it up.

However, just weeks before the trial began last month, prosecutors got the results of a paternity test from the unborn child. Smith wasn’t the father.

‘Murdering coward’

Brandon Short, a standout football player at McKeesport, Penn State and the NFL, was the first person to speak on his daughter’s behalf Tuesday.

He told Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kevin G. Sasinoski that he would not say the defendant’s name.

Instead, Short talked about his daughter. She was so excited to be a mom, he said. His daughter had been planning a gender reveal party with Smith.

“She was so happy to become a mother,” he said. “I am grateful my grandchild was not murdered by her father. Her father did not kill her. A murdering coward did.”

Short said his daughter was the center of every family gathering who loved holidays and spending time with family.

“All of us now live with a shroud of grief,” he said.

His wife, Mahreen Short, said she met Karli when she was just 10 years old.

At first, she said, the little girl was standoffish and precocious.

But soon, that changed.

Mahreen Short described her stepdaughter as kind and caring, someone who gave compliments freely and loved to cook for people.

“She had a beautiful soul,” she said.

When Karli learned she was pregnant, her father and stepmom were living in London, but they moved back in July 2021.

Seven weeks later, Mahreen Short said, Karli was killed.

“We were going to have more time,” she said. “We were counting on having more time.”

Karli’s mom, Krista Pettis, spoke last.

She told the court that Karli was her only child, and that the two of them grew up together.

“Karli was my world,” she said. “She loved life. All she wanted to do was be a mom.”

Looking at Smith, Pettis continued, “You robbed me of the joy of seeing my daughter be a mom.”

“I have nothing to look forward to because of you.”