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Jurors hear conflicting testimony in shooting case

By Jennifer Harr 5 min read

Fayette County jurors heard testimony that a then 16-year-old admitted shooting Michael “Scooter” Jointer to one friend and told an ex-girlfriend that if he ever shot someone, he was shooting to kill. But attorneys for Christopher Duncan, now 18, of Uniontown said he does not deny shooting Jointer, 19, at the corner of Dunlap and Coolspring streets in Uniontown on Jan. 31, 2005.

Assistant Public Defender Mike Garofolo told jurors they need to figure out why.

“Fear,” Garofolo said. “Chris Duncan, at 16 years old, was terrified of Scooter Jointer.”

Jointer, Garofolo said, made repeated threats to Duncan and his family.

He said shooting Jointer at that point in time “was the only way out of the situation to save (Duncan’s) own life.”

On Monday, prosecutors presented several witnesses to rebut that claim, including Robert “Boo Boo” Foster and Monique Dotson.

Dotson, 17, of Uniontown testified that she used to date Duncan, and knew that he was afraid because he believed Jointer shot up his Uniontown home around the time he shot Jointer.

Dotson testified she talked to Duncan early in the day on Jan. 31 and told her he was angry because his nieces were in the house when his home was shot at and they could have been hit. She testified Duncan’s brothers, and possibly Duncan himself, went to Brownsville looking for Jointer after the shooting.

Jointer was from Redstone Township.

Dotson testified Duncan also told her that people thought he was a joke.

“When I shoot somebody, I’m not shooting the leg, I’m not shooting the arm – I’m shooting to kill,” Dotson testified Duncan told her.

Foster testified he gave Duncan the .380-caliber gun used in the shooting earlier in the day on Jan. 31 because Duncan’s older brother wanted to buy the weapon.

Around 7 or 7:30 p.m., Foster testified Duncan returned the weapon at a Coolspring Street home. Foster testified that Duncan told him his brother did not want to buy the weapon any more.

Foster testified a short time later, Duncan told him, “We (expletive) up,” and admitted shooting Jointer.

Foster testified he already had cleaned the gun and hid it in the insulation of the attic. He testified he later turned the weapon over to police.

Foster testified he got 1 1/2 to 3 years for an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge as part of his cooperation in this case.

Jurors also heard from arresting officer, Detective Donald Gmitter, who testified that there was no evidence that Jointer had a weapon on him when he was shot, although earlier testimony indicated he had a box of .25-caliber ammunition in his jacket.

Jurors also heard from Richard McGee, who was with Jointer when he was shot.

McGee’s answers sometimes seemed evasive. When assistant district attorney Peter U. Hook asked him if he was “with anybody who got shot,” McGee, 19, of Uniontown replied he was not.

“I was around when somebody got shot,” he testified.

When Hook asked McGee where he was when Jointer got shot, McGee talked quietly for several seconds. Asked to repeat his answer, McGee told the prosecutor, “I’m thinking.”

Eventually, he told Hook he was coming up Dunlap Street toward Coolspring Street, but did not see Jointer get shot.

At one point, Hook asked McGee if he was afraid of something. McGee testified he was not.

“Where’d the bullet come from?” Hook asked.

“A gun, obviously,” McGee testified.

“That’s good,” Hook said. “Who was holding the gun?”

“I don’t know,” McGee testified. “I blocked that stuff out, it’s a tragedy.”

When Hook asked if he blocked out everyone who was at the scene, McGee said he blocked out everyone but Jointer.

After McGee testified he blocked out the incident, Hook asked President Judge Conrad B. Capuzzi for permission to read the teen’s preliminary hearing testimony, and the judge agreed.

In the preliminary hearing testimony from March 2005, McGee testified that he, Jointer and another man were walking along Dunlap Street when they saw another group of men that included Christopher Duncan and his brother, Charlie. The groups talked, and McGee’s preliminary hearing testimony indicated that he heard Jointer ask Charlie Duncan if they had a problem with one another.

The preliminary hearing testimony indicated that Duncan said no, and McGee turned around to talk to someone and heard “a pop” and saw Jointer on the ground.

In her opening remarks, Assistant District Attorney Linda Cordaro addressed conduct like McGee’s.

She warned jurors that because the case was a homicide, many of the witnesses were not “choir boys.”

“Some of the witnesses you will hear from in this trial are not pillars of our community,” she said.

But she reminded the panel that although their language may be gruff or their manner of speaking unpolished, they were there to testify about what they saw and what happened accurately.

Testimony in the case will pick up this morning, when jurors will hear from an additional police witness and forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht. Garofolo and Assistant Public Defender Thomas W. Shaffer will begin the defense case afterward.

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