Man on trial for Pottstown shooting
NORRISTOWN » As he lay bleeding and critically wounded on the floor of a mechanic’s garage, a Pottstown man positively identified a Norristown man as the person who shot him, a prosecutor argued to a jury.
“He said, ‘Bobby Brown, Bobby Brown of Norristown.’ His words pointed to one person … the person who left him to die on the floor of that mechanic’s garage in Pottstown,” Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Samantha L. Thompson argued to
a jury as Brown’s attempted murder trial got under way on Thursday.
Thompson added when Pottstown police arrived at the garage and saw Robert Pfanders lying on the garage floor and bleeding heavily from multiple gunshot wounds “they thought he was going to die.”
Thompson revealed Pfanders, who suffered wounds to his left leg, left arm and left side of his back, will testify during the trial that is expected to last three days before Judge Richard P. Haaz.
Brown, 41, of the first block of Lincoln Drive, Norristown, faces charges of attempted homicide, aggravated and simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, firearms not to be carried without a license and possessing an instrument of crime in connection with the 2:40 p.m. Nov. 1, 2016, shooting of Pfanders inside a garage located at the rear of a residence in the first block of King Street in Pottstown.
But defense lawyer Scott C. McIntosh argued to the jury that there is no DNA evidence, no video surveillance footage of the shooting and that a weapon was never found, nor linked to Brown. McIntosh suggested an eyewitness’s account of the shooting and his identification of Brown
as the shooter also can’t be trusted because the eyewitness was under the influence of drugs at the time of the shooting.
“He has strenuously denied he is guilty of these charges,” argued McIntosh, referring to Brown while implying authorities arrested the wrong person.
Brown, who remains in the county jail in lieu of $250,000 cash bail pending trial, faces decades in prison if convicted of the charges.
An investigation began when Pottstown police responded to a reported shooting in the garage.
“He was lying on the ground. He had a large amount of blood on the left side of his body,” Pottstown Police Officer Jacob Ritter testified, adding he found Pfanders lying on the floor of the garage and immediately rendered aid with a dressing. “I picked the bloodiest part of his body and applied pressure.”
When police asked Pfanders who shot him, he allegedly replied, “Bobby Brown! Bobby Brown from Norristown,” according to the arrest affidavit filed by Pottstown Detective Thomas Leahan.
Terry Presgrave of Pottstown testified for Thompson that he was working with Pfanders in the garage at the time of the shooting, witnessed Pfanders arguing with another man about ownership of a motorcycle in the garage and saw the man with a gun, but added he had never met Brown prior to that day.
Asked to identify the shooter Presgrave pointed to Brown in the courtroom and said, “I believe it was him.” But Presgrave added he was “high that day” after using methamphetamine and his recollection of events was “foggy.”
Presgrave, under crossexamination by McIntosh, admitted that his drug use sometimes led to hallucinations and he added, “I can’t be totally positive.” Presgrave also recalled seeing two other unidentified men standing outside the garage around the time of the shooting.
“You don’t know who pulled the trigger do you?” McIntosh asked Presgrave.
“Now, when you say it that way, No, I don’t,” Presgrave testified.
But when questioned again by Thompson, Presgrave testified he didn’t hallucinate the shooting and he did have the wherewithal to call 911.
Pfanders was taken from the scene by Goodwill Ambulance and later airlifted in critical condition from Pottstown Memorial Medical Center to Lehigh Valley Hospital, near Allentown, which has a trauma center.
Prosecutors alleged Brown was angry when he came to the garage that day and suspected the motorcycle in the garage belonged to him. Witnesses said the motorcycle did not belong to Brown.