Jury convicts of attempted murder | News, sports, work

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County jury took about 90 minutes Thursday to convict an Altoona man of attempted murder, aggravated assault and related crimes after a shooting that occurred early on Dec. 11, 2022, outside a city bar.

Sheriff’s deputies handcuffed and escorted 39-year-old Mark A. Phillips Jr. to the county jail shortly after the jury returned to court with 16 guilty verdicts, ending a three-day trial in which Phillips pleaded guilty to striking the gun with a .45-caliber ACP Smith & Wesson M&P rifle. But he couldn’t explain why he fired a bullet at a vehicle with five people in an alley next to the Kettle Inn bar.

District Attorney Pete Weeks, who asked the jury to reject Phillips’ claims, cited expert testimony that said the gun could not be fired without pressing the trigger.

“He shot a bullet through the windshield,” Weeks said, closing the case to the jury, which saw photos of the vehicle’s windshield shattered by a bullet hole and the exhaust port with strands of the driver’s hair.

Weeks argued that Phillips mistakenly believed that Mykal Cowher – the man who punched Phillips in the mouth and knocked him to the ground in the Kettle Inn parking lot – was the driver of the vehicle.

Cowher, who was in the parking lot with several other bar patrons, admitted punching Phillips during the argument and then getting into a vehicle that had arrived to take his friends home.

Weeks cited surveillance footage to indicate that after Phillips got up from the ground and began pacing in a circle, he rushed to a nearby parked truck and reached for his gun.

“His motive is revenge,” Weeks said.

Phillips told the jury he was afraid of being attacked by Cowher and his friends and wanted a gun for protection. But Weeks and another prosecutor, First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith, disagreed.

During cross-examination of Phillips, Smith suggested that instead of going for the gun, the frightened Phillips could have simply left.

“If only you had a truck you could drive away in?” Smith said jokingly during the hearing, then added, “Oh wait, you did it.”

In response, Phillips testified that he thought Cowher and his friends would be looking for him.

Defense attorney Kristen Anastasi asked jurors to accept that Phillips had no intention of killing anyone when he “slammed the butt of the gun into the windshield.” She described Phillips as scared, mad and alone in an alley where, after being hit so hard he fell to the ground, he thought there were five people ready to chase him.

“This whole thing comes down to what was in Mark’s head… and Mark believed he was being attacked,” Anastasi said.

Weeks asked the jury to reject that claim, relying on the surveillance video.

He pointed to Phillips’ failure to respond to the gunshot and then to Phillips reaching through the vehicle’s windows to attack the front and rear passengers, including a man whom he pistol-whipped three times. As the driver drove away, surveillance footage showed Phillips attempting to fire at the vehicle.

“It was all just because he got punched in the mouth and he didn’t like it,” Weeks told jurors.

Smith made a similar motion after the verdicts.

“He brought a gun to a bar fight … because he has a temper and a fragile ego,” she said.

President Judge Wade A. Kagarise revoked Phillips’ bail pending sentencing to an unspecified date after Smith indicated that Phillips’ conviction could result in a sentence of 20 to 40 years. Anastasi countered, pointing out that Phillips had been out of jail on bail for almost two years without any violations.

“I am disappointed that the jury viewed the events differently than we did,” the defense attorney said.

Smith also praised Altoona police officers for their work in the case.

After responding to the report of the shooting, she said officers quickly secured surveillance footage and used it to identify those involved in the shooting.

She praised their subsequent interviews with Phillips, who provided condensed versions of events and contradictory statements that led officers to conclude it was not a random shooting.

“This case was also about divine intervention,” Smith added. “It could easily have been murder.”

In addition to charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault, the jury also convicted Phillips of misdemeanor counts of possessing an instrument of murder, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens can be reached at 814-946-7456.