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Alleged shooter takes stand in own defense

LeFevre admits firing gun but says, ‘I was aiming at no one’

LeFevre

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A man on trial for attempted homicide and related charges said Tuesday that he fired a gun multiple times during a drug sale in Greenwood last September.

“But I didn’t aim to shoot anybody,” 43-year-old Justin “Shaggy” LeFevre told the Blair County jury expected to deliberate his fate today.

Police and prosecutors say LeFevre is responsible for firing the bullet that struck a woman in the shoulder on

Sept. 13, 2020, while she was fleeing from a drug deal gone bad.

LeFevre said Tuesday that he and then-girlfriend, Rebekah L. Todd, both were armed that night because they made plans to buy $1,000 worth of methamphetamine from the woman at a location near the Sheetz store in Greenwood. He said he had a 9 mm handgun and Todd carried an AR-15 pistol with a barrel.

As the drug deal fell apart, LeFevre said he fired the handgun several times into the air while Todd took a position to fire, then directed the gun’s barrel toward the woman who was running away.

“I was aiming at no one,” LeFevre told the jury.

LeFevre took the stand in his own defense Tuesday after District Attorney Pete Weeks and Assistant District Attorney Justin Shickman wrapped up their case with testimony from Logan Township police investigator Chris Rosenberry, who detailed his department’s work.

After LeFevre testified, Weeks put Rosenberry back on the stand to explain the difference in sounds made by a 9 mm handgun and an AR-15 pistol with a barrel.

Rosenberry told the jury he is familiar with both weapons. The firing of a

9 mm handgun is short and quick, and the firing of an AR-15 pistol is much louder, the officer explained.

Rosenberry also told the jury that when he reviewed a surveillance video recorded by a nearby property owner, he listened to a replay of the gunshots fired that night.

“They all sounded the same on the home video surveillance,” the officer said.

Police reported finding nine 9 mm casings from the shooting area.

In an opening statement on LeFevre’s behalf, defense attorney Richard Corcoran spoke of his client’s innocence and the prosecution’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

LeFevre admitted to the jury that he and Todd, who met in March 2020, regularly consumed methamphetamine. He said they were living at an apartment in Greenwood last September when his 15-year-old cousin contacted him about a woman who wanted to

sell $1,000 worth of methamphetamine.

LeFevre denied that he and Todd were planning to rob the woman as the 15-year-old male cousin testified.

“So you’re saying this was a drug purchase?” Weeks asked while cross-examining LeFevre.

“I’m saying he (the male cousin) was planning on stealing the drugs,” LeFevre said. “I was planning on buying them.”

LeFevre told the jury that when he and Todd approached the woman who had the methamphetamine for sale, there was an argument going on among the woman, his cousin and a 15-year-old female teenager who came to the location with the woman.

LeFevre said the woman was making threats with a knife, so in response, he pointed his gun at her and demanded the knife, then fired the gun into the air.

“I was trying to take control of the situation,” LeFevre said.

The gunfire prompted the woman and teenagers to flee.

The jury will be asked to render verdicts on attempted homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, reckless endangerment, simple assault, risking a catastrophe and related charges.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.

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