A pathologist contradicted accused murderer Andrew Rogers' police statement yesterday, testifying that evidence doesn't support Rogers' account of the fight that resulted in a Penn State student's death.

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 that Park was likely killed by a severe blow to the right back side of his head that caused his skull to "cave in on itself."

Four days after the incident, Rogers laid out for police his version of the fight's sequence of events. However, during Kamerow's testimony yesterday, the pathologist disputed the end of Rogers' story, which states that the last thing Rogers did before he blacked out was to choke Park by putting a baseball bat across his neck and kneeling on it.

According to Rogers' statement to police, Park was still alive and reaching for a gun when Rogers finished hitting him with the bat and began to choke him.

However, Kamerow testified that Rogers hit Park with the baseball bat so hard he would have died within seconds, a fact that contradicts Rogers' story.

Since the bruising on Park's neck shows that his blood was still circulating, and the linear pattern of the bruise across his neck indicates that he was able to keep his head upright, Kamerow said Rogers must have choked Park before delivering the fatal blow.

State College Police Detective Michael T. McDannel testified that Rogers said he hit Park "more than 20 and less than 50 [times]."

Brett Albert, a state police blood stain expert, testified that blood splattered over the dining room walls and refrigerator and found on Rogers' pants and the baseball bat, rolling pin and beer bottle used in the fight could all be linked to Park. The prosecution and defense agreed that Rogers did not contribute to the samples.

Also during the morning, Kevin Deskiewicz, the state police officer who analyzed the footprints found at the crime scene, confirmed reports that three bloody footprints found at the scene could not be linked to either Park or Rogers.

The print consists of a "herringbone" tread, which Deskiewicz said neither a shoe print database or 11 shoe stores in the Harrisburg area have been able to match.

Defense attorney David Crowley has called the prints evidence of Sweet's existence.

McDannel also testified that investigators had tried to locate Park's friends and old roommates, asking all the people he spoke with if they knew anything about Sweet.

McDannel also said investigators showed Rogers nine different photo lineups containing random photos from a criminal database alongside photos of people who might be Sweet. Rogers did not identify any of the people in the photographs as Sweet.

In afternoon testimony, Rogers' best friend, Nathan Rossi, 28, of Uniontown, testified about a surprise visit from Rogers the morning after Park's death, three hours away from the State College apartment where Park lay.

Rossi said he heard a knock at the door while getting dressed at about 7 a.m. for his job as a high school special education teacher, and outside his door found a disheveled and black-and-blue Rogers, who immediately asked him if he would call off work.

"I instantly realized something was very wrong with Andy. He seemed emotionally all over the place," Rossi said about the appearance of his friend, whom he had not seen for almost a year. "It sounded like he was freaking out, quite frankly."

After going to Rossi's residence, Rogers traveled to Pittsburgh, where he stayed in a Motel 6 and paid for the room with money he had taken from Park after the incident, the prosecution said Monday.

McDannel said Rogers told him that he went to Century III mall, where he purchased a Bible from a dollar store and some warmer clothes. He said Rogers told him that he had planned to stay in a tent and had purchased the Bible as "something to read."

Rogers' attorney, Deborah Lux, has told jurors that Rogers began several times to attempt to contact his mother in the days before he turned himself in but did not want to burden her with the news.

Rossi said he urged Rogers to turn himself into Uniontown police, which he did four days after Park died. Rogers told Rossi that he feared for his life because Sweet was still at large, and Rossi told him the police would protect him, Rossi testified.