There were rumors floating around for a couple of days now that 39-year-old Josh Kruger, shot to death in his home at 2346 Watkins Street in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Philadelphia, allegedly by 19-year-old Robert Edmond Davis, had not only been in a ‘relationship’ with Mr Davis, but had been so while Mr Davis was still a minor. What I did not expect is that, even if true, The Philadelphia Inquirer would report on them:

Family of man wanted for killing Josh Kruger says the 19-year-old and the journalist shared sex and drugs

The assertions by Robert Davis’ mother and older brother add new complexities to a killing that has garnered national attention.

by Ellie Rushing | Wednesday, October 11, 2023 | 5:14 PM EDT

Josh Kruger and his cat, Mason.

The family of Robert Davis, 19, who is accused of killing local journalist Josh Kruger, said that Davis was just 15 when he and Kruger began a years-long relationship involving drugs — and that Davis told them Kruger was threatening to post sexually explicit videos of him online before, police say, Davis shot Kruger.

Those assertions by Davis’ mother and older brother in recent interviews with The Inquirer add troubling new complexities to a killing that has garnered national attention. Their account, they said, is drawn from recent conversations with Davis, and from the years of watching his life unravel as he tried to keep the relationship and his drug addiction hidden.

Kruger, 39, was killed after a man entered his Point Breeze home in the middle of the night, police said, and shot him seven times at the base of his stairs. Surveillance video near the scene and tips from Kruger’s friends and family led detectives to Davis, and a warrant was issued for his arrest a few days later. Police described the pair as acquaintances, and said Kruger “was trying to help [Davis] get through life.”

The family’s contentions come as detectives separately discovered and are investigating what multiple law enforcement sources have called explicit photos and messages in Kruger’s phone. The sources, who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, did not say whether the images or messages were connected to Davis, but said they were “disturbing” and have been turned over to the department’s Special Victims Unit for further analysis.

There’s more at the original.

This is a pretty disturbing story, because it portrays Mr Kruger as a chickenhawk, an older homosexual male who prefers younger males as sexual partners. Given all of the tributes which poured in concerning Mr Kruger after he was murdered, that the newspaper published this story at all means that it was going to come out anyway.

I knew Mr Kruger only over the internet, and that just slightly, because he was followed by twelve other people I follow on Twitter. Mr Kruger was a Philly liberal, who occasionally made a point from the left that wasn’t bat guano insane, and occasionally made decent arguments. I disagreed with him on almost everything, but one thing was obvious: even though his opinions were mostly wrong, he wasn’t a stupid man.

Damica Davis said her son called her on Friday, just hours after Philadelphia police burst into her South Philadelphia home looking for him. She urged him to turn himself in, she said, but before the call ended, he frantically tried to explain himself, though he stopped short of admitting to the crime.

“He was scared,” she said. “He said ‘… He wanted me to do some stuff I didn’t want to do and if I didn’t do it, he said he was going to blackmail me.’”

The family allege that Mr Kruger had sexually explicit photos and videos of Mr Davis, and had threatened to post them online unless Mr Davis did whatever “some stuff” means.

This gets back to Mr Kruger not being stupid. If Mr Kruger did have explicit photos of Mr Davis and posted them online, in a blackmail attempt, such would eventually lead back to Mr Kruger, who, again allegedly, engaged in some form of sexual contact with Mr Davis while the younger man was still a minor. The age of consent in Pennsylvania is 16, and Mr Kruger met none of the qualifications for having authority over Mr Davis as defined in Pennsylvania’s institutional sexual assault statute. But if any sexual activity took place while Mr Davis was 15, Mr Kruger would have been, under Pennsylvania Title 18 §3122(1)(b), guilty of a first-degree felony.

There are a couple of obvious factors in play here. While it is possible that Mr Kruger threatened such blackmail, he might never have meant to carry it out, given that such would have exposed him as well. Just threatening such blackmail would be, under Pennsylvania Title 18 §3133(a)(1) and (b)(2), is a third-degree felony under subsection (d)(2)(i).

Damica Davis and her older son Jaylin Reason said in an interview that Davis faced mental health issues from a young age. He struggled to control his anger in school, his mother said, partially because of the absence of his biological father in his life, and often got into fights. When he was about 15, she said, his troubles intensified after he started sneaking out in the middle of the night and coming home high on drugs.

They said Davis told them he was seeing an “older white woman” he met online who “worked for the government.”

There’s much more in the article, and it reads, quite frankly, like the set-up of a legal defense, that Mr Davis was too young to consent to sex, was very troubled about engaging in homosexual activity, that he was blackmailed, and that Mr Kruger, himself a self-acknowledged methamphetamine addict — though he claimed to be sober and clean in recent years — got Mr Davis addicted to crystal meth.

The police did find methamphetamines in Mr Kruger’s home during the initial investigation of the shooting.

From the initial investigation of the shooting, Mr Davis would have appeared to be guilty of either first or third-degree murder under Pennsylvania law. With these claims made through his family, it seems obvious to me that Mr Davis’ family are trying to set up — possibly on the advice of an attorney? — a reduced charge for the alleged killer, or possibly even a self-defense case.

Mr Kruger was a minor celebrity in Philly, and had a lot of friends, including Mayor Jim Kenney. Among those who followed him on Twitter were District Attorney Larry Krasner, the District Attorney’s Office, Inquirer editorial writer Daniel Pearson, and CNN’s Jake Tapper. Now, Mr Davis’ family are telling us that Mr Kruger was a sexual predator. I wonder how his friends and supporters will feel about him now.