DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. — A 59-year-old man was sentenced Friday to 20-40 years in prison following guilty pleas to third-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the 2016 death of Tomicka Stubbs, according to police.
Archie Wright stabbed the 37-year-old woman 17 times with a knife and strangled her with a bicycle security chain in her Swatara Township apartment on Sunday, May 15, 2016, police said. Four of Stubbs’ five children were in the apartment at the time of the murder and there was no sign of forced entry.
Police said a bloody shoe print was found on the floor of Stubbs’ apartment, as well as blood in the sink. Police noted it appeared someone had cleaned up in the bathroom.
Wright was interviewed by police that night after authorities learned he had threatened to kill Stubbs within the last week and that he had choked her previously.
Police said they didn’t have probable cause to arrest Wright at that moment, but that changed after they got hold of security camera video from a school van he drove for his job.
According to police, video showed Wright on Monday arriving at a home he was believed to have been renting in Harrisburg and less than a minute later, returning to the van with a pair of tan boots.
Video then showed Wright walking down a ramp leading to the Susquehanna River underneath the Interstate 83 bridge. When he returned, police said Wright no longer had the boots.
It was believed that Wright dropped the boots into the river in an attempt to destroy evidence related to Stubbs’ death.
Wright was arrested and charged that night.
