HOLLIDAYSBURG - The prosecution wrapped up Tuesday's testimony against Nicholas A. Horner by calling Altoona Detective Sgt. Ben Jones to read a statement Horner made to him within two hours of the shootings on April 6, 2009.
Jones told the jury that the statement by Horner was very detailed as he outlined the dispute with his wife, and his afternoon at Holiday Bowl.
He told the officer he was a nephew to Trooper Joseph Sepp, who died in a shooting in Ebensburg almost a decade ago - a true statement, Jones confirmed.
He seemed eager to tell his side of the story, Jones said.
"I just want justice to be done. I am not a criminal," Horner stated.
But when it came to events after Horner left Holiday Bowl and went to Subway, his story became rambling and confused, as Jones presented it.
When he left Holiday Bowl to walk to his Altoona home, a man in a car kidnapped him, Horner said. He pulled a gun on Horner and told him to get into the car.
Horner said he was frightened, got in the car and drove it to the parking garage of the nearby Logan Valley Mall.
He said he couldn't tell police what the man looked like or what type of car he was driving, but Horner, who was driving, said he stopped the car and ran away.
The kidnapper began to chase him.
He ran into the creek bed and he heard gunshots, the man still in pursuit.
Horner thinks he entered Subway for a "split second," he said in the statement.
In another part of the statement, Horner said that when he entered Subway, a woman offered him money. The woman began slapping him, and he was afraid, he said.
Horner inferred in his statement that the man chasing him killed Subway employee Scott Garlick, 19, and shot another employee Michele Petty.
He said he was a victim.
Then he complained that he expected to go to jail.
"Somebody got shot. You know that it's going to come down to me. I'm going to do 60 years in jail. It's going to happen," he told Jones.
Jones said he believed Horner was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol when he gave his 45-minute statement to police that day.
Mirror Staff Writer Phil Ray is at 946-7468.
