HOLLIDAYSBURG — Eyewitnesses to a shooting rampage testified Thursday to their horror and confusion during the triple-murder trial of Miguel Padilla of Cambria County.
Tonya Kline saw the fire blaze from the gun as it was shot.
“I froze for a moment, then I hit the cement. I just turned around and dove,” she testified.
“Al (murder victim Alfred Mignogna) was laying across my legs. I was covered in blood.”
Emotional and often graphic words highlighted the second day of testimony – with the girlfriend of one victim describing how her boyfriend pushed her out of the way and was immediately shot in the chest.
The attorney for Padilla, 26, of Convent Street agrees that his client, an illegal immigrant, shot Mignogna, Fred Rickabaugh and Stephen Heiss to death outside an Altoona club on Aug. 28, 2005.
The strategy of Donald Speice is to claim Padilla was in such a mental state that he could not form the intent to commit first-degree murder – and thereby save Padilla’s life.
Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio contends that Padilla had the time and mental soundness to intend to kill the men, a necessary element in a charge of first-degree murder.
A transcript from a 911 call Padilla made about an hour after the shootings depict a man who claims he is confused with no memory of the incident.
“I know they’re looking for me. I think I may have hurt somebody, but I don’t know what I did,” Padilla told dispatcher Jamie McClellan.
He goes on that he takes medication, believed to be for a panic disorder, but he had been without the drug for a month prior to the murders.
The shootings occurred after an evening of drinking by Padilla drinking and friend Travis Shumaker.
However, police who arrested Padilla a hour after the shootings said he walked backward for a distance of 50 feet and showed no sign of being incapacitated.
The jury also viewed a video from a security camera posted at a discount grocery showing Padilla running from the scene through the back parking lot of the United Veterans Association, where the shooting occurred.
Barbara Zindel, 38, who was attempting to go into the club with Heiss at the time, testified her boyfriend pushed her to the ground before he took a single bullet to the chest.
“I felt Mr. Mignogna fall on the back of my legs,” dying, she testified.
Altoona police officers testified about finding a .45-caliber handgun with laser sighting in a wooded area four blocks from the UVA.
Also found was a briefcase with Padilla’s drivers license, cards for his construction business, insurance information for four of his vehicles including a silver Jaguar with North Carolina plates and registered in his name.
That briefcase also contained $19,000 in cash. However, that information was not presented to the jury following a ruling by Judge Hiram Carpenter, disallowing the evidence.
An estimated five prosecution witnesses remain and the prosecution’s case should wrap up today. The defense may start to present its witnesses before day’s end.
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