HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County jury took about 10 minutes Tuesday to acquit an Altoona man on a charge of terroristic threats.

“I think the jury got it absolutely correct based on how fast they came back with a verdict,” defense attorney Brian Grabill said on behalf of 29-year-old Christopher W. Irvin.

“(Grabill) did a good job of making the victim look like a criminal,” Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio said. “It’s a common defense tactic, and it worked today which is too bad for law enforcement.”

Irvin’s one-day trial focused on a series of events during the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2017, when an Altoona woman, Jessica Campbell, found Irvin on the porch of her residence on the 1000 block of Third Avenue.

Based on testimony, Irvin had gone to Campbell’s house because his ex-girlfriend’s 16-year-old daughter was there. Through social media postings, Irvin had learned of the girl’s intent on getting drunk at the residence where two months earlier, she had fought with another girl and suffered facial injuries.

Consiglio tried to get the jurors to focus on what happened after the 16-year-old girl contacted Campbell, who was out for New Year’s Eve, and advised her that someone was banging on the door, trying to get into the house.

Campbell, who had left her four children in the girl’s care, said she went home after getting the call and found Irvin on her porch. She said he didn’t try to explain why he was there.

And when she confronted him, she said he pushed her, slapped her and threatened “to shoot everyone in the house.”

At the bottom of the porch steps, she said he kept pulling his shirt away from his pants to reveal what she believed to be a gun.

Altoona police, summoned to the block by a neighbor who heard commotion, found Irvin walking not far from the residence. They also found a gun holstered in his waistband and later learned that Irvin was properly licensed to possess and conceal the firearm.

Patrolman Patrick Tomassetti, who searched Irvin and found the gun, described Irvin as “highly intoxicated,” smelling of alcohol and unsteady on his feet.

Fellow patrolman Derrick Tardive said Irvin “couldn’t put a full sentence together.”

Grabill asked the jury to question Campbell’s description of what happened on the porch. She was the only one, he said, who accused Irvin of making threats when police officers said Irvin was slurring words.

Grabill also said Campbell had reason to be concerned when police showed up because she has three pending charges for selling heroin at the residence.

Consiglio insisted that Campbell’s pending charges make no difference and have no relevance in judging Irvin’s behavior. But Grabill told the jury that Campbell was intent on deflecting the officers’ attention away from her residence where a teenage girl caring for four children was supposed to be drinking with two teenage male friends. Campbell said she had no knowledge of boys being at that residence and when she got home, none were there.

The 16-year-old girl, however, told police that the boys had tried to force Irvin to leave and pushed him off the porch. Tardive said Irvin, when taken into custody, had a scrape on his forehead and a bruise near his eye.

After the jury’s decision, Judge Wade Kagarise acquitted Irvin on summary counts of harassment and disorderly conduct. But the judge convicted him on summary counts of public drunkenness and criminal mischief based on testimony indicating that Irvin destroyed Campbell’s mailbox while on the porch.

The judge, who imposed court costs and $600 in fines, suggested that Irvin learn something from the experience.

“Your behavior was less than ideal regardless of the circumstances,” Kagarise said. “I think you showed lousy judgment.”

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.