Attempted homicide, aggravated assault charges dismissed in bar shooting
A Fayette County judge on Friday dismissed aggravated assault and attempted homicide charges against a Nemacolin man charged in a 2011 bar fight in Masontown.
Judge Steve P. Leskinen declined to dismiss four counts of recklessly endangering another person and a single count of simple assault against Jeffrey A. Rotharmel, 54.
The jurist’s decision came after a suppression hearing in which prosecutors did not present any witnesses of the alleged bar shooting, and Rotharmel’s attorney asked Leskinen to base his decision on a transcript of the preliminary hearing.
Charges were filed after a fight about a pool game with Carl Seiler at Adolph’s Bar. Police alleged that Rotharmel brought a gun into the bar and he scuffled with two other men. Police indicated the gun went off. Neither of the other two men were hit, but Rotharmel was hit in the hand, police said.
To convict Rotharmel of attempted homicide, prosecutors would have to show he had a specific intent to kill, Leskinen wrote.
“Here, the victim was uninjured, and there is no evidence that the firearm was discharged towards, or even near, the victim. On the contrary, the only person injured by the gun firing was Rotharmel himself. It is unreasonable to infer that he intentionally pulled the trigger — who would intentionally injure himself with his own gun?” Leskinen wrote. “The reasonable inference is that the struggle for the handgun continued after Seiler slipped away and that the gun was discharged accidentally by one or more of the three individuals that were left struggling for possession of the gun.”
Arguing “what may have happened” is not enough to sustain an attempted homicide charge, Leskinen found.
He also found that there was no specific intent to support an aggravated assault charge.