A Florida man has been convicted in Berks County Court of fatally shooting a fellow truck driver at an Upper Bern Township truck stop in 2024.
Travis J. Pugh, 57, Jacksonville, was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder following a three-day trial before Judge Eleni Dimitriou Geishauser.
Officials said the shooting took place during an argument March 22, 2024, at Love’s Travel Stop on Mountain Road near the Shartlesville interchange of Interstate 78. James A. Hilton, 40 of Southampton Township, N.J., was killed.
State police said the argument began while Hilton was helping another driver park his truck in the rear lot at Love’s. Pugh, who was not the person Hilton was helping, became angry, and an argument ensued.
During the argument, Pugh shot Hilton, they said.
State police were called to the scene at 2:48 a.m., and troopers issued a bulletin calling on law enforcement within a 99-mile radius of the scene to be on the lookout for Pugh’s tractor-trailer.
Troopers from the Fogelsville station spotted the vehicle about 20 miles east of the truck stop at the I-78 New Smithville interchange in western Lehigh County. The driver was on the ramp heading westbound on the interstate. State police followed the truck. They pulled over the driver as he was exiting at the Krumsville interchange and arrested him at 3:31 a.m., investigators said.
Pugh remains in Berks County Jail without bail pending sentencing in February.