HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Altoona man is on trial this week in Blair County Court, accused of attempted homicide and related charges during a shooting that happened almost two years ago in an alley behind the Kettle Inn.

Jurors on Tuesday, the first day of trial for Mark A. Phillips, 39, watched surveillance video secured by Altoona police showing Phillips arguing with Mykel T. Cowher of Altoona, who struck Phillips with his fist and knocked him to the ground.

Subsequently, Phillips is accused of going to his vehicle and retrieving a handgun that he aimed and fired at a vehicle with a driver and four passengers, including Cowher. And while the vehicle was stopped, Phillips is accused of reaching through the vehicle’s rear window and using the gun to pistol-whip a passenger in the back seat.

First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith, who described the chain of events on Dec. 11, 2022, for jurors on Tuesday in an opening statement, asked them to hold Phillips accountable.

This went “from a one-punch bar brawl to a near-fatality,” Smith said.

Defense attorney Kristen Anastasi, in cross-examining the police officer who found Phillips at home after the shooting, suggested that her client was cooperative with police.

Altoona police patrolman George Featherstone said Phillips told him the gun used in the shooting was on the kitchen counter.

Featherstone said he found the gun on the counter and his examination of the firearm indicated that it malfunctioned at some point — consistent with a claim that Phillips attempted to again shoot at the vehicle as the driver drove away, but his gun hadn’t fired.

Altoona police officer Casey Winters told the jury he took photos of the damage to the vehicle caused by the bullet that went through the passenger side windshield and crossed the car before exiting through the panel below the driver’s side window.

In displaying the photo for the jury, Winters pointed to hair strands coming out of the bullet hole.

Smith told the jury in her opening that the hair belonged to the driver, who is lucky to be alive.

Tuesday’s witnesses included Cowher, who admitted to punching Phillips in the face because Phillips used derogatory terms in referencing a woman they both knew. Court records show Cowher pleaded guilty in April 2023 to simple assault for a sentence with two years’ probation.

The Altoona man who reported being pistol-whipped said he recalled being struck one time, then passing out. He said he had suffered two black eyes, a swollen lip and mouth and jaw injuries.

When Anastasi asked the victim if he told police that he and his friends were all drunk that night, the victim replied: “We had drinks.”

Testimony resumes today in a trial expected to last through Thursday with President Judge Wade A. Kagarise presiding.

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