Diona Burks doesn’t want to remember her grandson Russell McKeehan Jr. as he died, but for how he lived.
McKeehan, 45, was shot and killed in January 2023 at a Fleur Drive hotel. Surfun Boens, with whom he was staying, was found guilty of his murder , and on Friday was sentenced to life in prison.
Burks, whose statement was read in court by prosecutor Kevin Bell, said what matters about “Rusty” McKeehan was his love for his family, his friends, and life.
“I want to remember and think about his love for the Pittsburgh steelers … and eating food I had prepared for him,” she wrote.
Others who spoke at Friday’s hearing recalled about McKeehan as the life of a party, his importance to his five children, and how his loss devastated his mother, who died of cancer just months after her son’s killing. His 16-year-old daughter said she longs to hear him respond when she speaks to him while visiting his grave, and that “he’ll never know how hard I try to make him proud.”
McKeehan struggled in his final years — his family spoke of his battle with addiction — and was on the verge of homelessness when he wound up sharing Boens’ hotel room. At his trial in November, prosecutors said Boens repeatedly called police trying to get McKeehan evicted, and alleged that he shot McKeehan twice in the head while he slept on Jan. 13, 2023.