A pathologist testified today that accused murderer Andrew Rogers' details of a fight are not supported by autopsy results.
The murder trial of Rogers, 29, is currently in its second day of testimony. Rogers is charged with first- and third-degree murder in connection with the February beating death of Penn State student Youngcheol Park, 24.
Police said Rogers and Park were doing cocaine together when the fight broke out. Rogers has said he acted in self-defense and a third man, known only as "Sweet," instigated the fight. Police have been unable to identify Sweet.
Harry Kamerow, the staff pathologist at Mount Nittany Medical Center who performed the autopsy on Park, told the jury this morning that Park was likely killed by a blow to the right back side to the head.
According to police, Rogers said the last thing he remembers is choking Park with a baseball bat.
However, Kamerow testified today that Rogers hit Park with the baseball bat so hard that he would have died within seconds.
Since the bruising on Park's neck shows that blood was still circulating, and the linear pattern of the bruise indicates that he could keep his head upright, Kamerow said Rogers must have choked Park before delivering the fatal blow.
Rogers' account that he choked Park after he had finished hitting him is "not within reason," Kamerow said.
In the afternoon, Rogers' best friend, Nathan Rossi, 28, of Uniontown, testified about the day after the incident, when Rogers came to his home.
"I instantly realized something was very wrong with Andy. He seemed emotionally all over the place," he said today.
Rossi testified that he has been friends with Rogers for more than 15 years, though he hadn't spoken to Rogers during the year before the incident.
Rossi said he told police a month after the incident that he was the one who convinced Rogers to turn himself into Uniontown police four days after Park died.
Rogers feared for his life because "Sweet was still out there" and Rossi told him the police would protect him, Rossi testified.
