HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Blair County jury took nearly 90 minutes Thursday to convict an Altoona man of attempted murder, aggravated assault and related offenses in the early morning Dec. 11, 2022, shooting outside a city bar.

Shortly after the jury returned to court with 16 guilty verdicts, sheriff’s deputies handcuffed 39-year-old Mark A. Phillips Jr. and escorted him to the county jail, ending the three-day trial in which Phillips admitted to shooting a .45-caliber ACP Smith & Wesson M&P . Point the shield gun at the windshield. However, he could not explain why bullets were fired into the car carrying five people in the alley next to the Kettle Inn bar.

Asking the jury to reject Phillips’ claim, District Attorney Pete Weeks cited testimony from expert witnesses who said the gun could not fire without the trigger being pulled.

“He put a bullet through the windshield,” Weeks said as he closed his case before a jury, which saw photographs showing the vehicle’s windshield shattered by a bullet hole and an exit hole containing strands of the female driver’s hair.

Weeks argued that Phillips mistakenly thought Mykal Cowher was the driver of the vehicle, who punched Phillips in the mouth and knocked him to the ground in the Kettle Inn parking lot.

Cowher, who was in the parking lot with other bar patrons, admitted to hitting Phillips during an argument, then getting into an arriving vehicle to take his friends home.

Weeks relied on surveillance footage to show Phillips got up from the ground, walked in a circle, then hurried to his truck parked nearby and retrieved the gun.

“His goal is revenge,” Weeks said.

Phillips told the jury he was afraid of being attacked by Cowher and his friends and wanted a gun for protection. But Weeks and his fellow prosecutor, First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith, disagreed.

While cross-examining Phillips, who testified, Smith suggested that Phillips, who was frightened, might have walked away instead of grabbing his gun.

“What do you wish you had a truck to drive?” Smith said humorously in his cross-examination, then added: “Oh, wait, you did.”

In response, Phillips testified that he thought Cowher and his friends would seek him out.

Defense attorney Kristen Anastasi asked jurors to accept that Phillips had no intention of killing anyone “when he slammed the butt of the gun into the windshield.” He said Phillips was frightened, distraught and alone in an alley, after being hit so hard that he fell to the ground and thought there were five people ready to come after him.

“This whole incident has to do with what was in Mark’s mind… and Mark believed he was under attack,” Anastasi said.

Weeks asked the jury to reject that claim based on surveillance footage.

He pointed out that Phillips did not react to the firing of the gun, and then Phillips reached through the windows of the vehicle and attacked the front and rear passengers (including the man he shot three times with the gun). As the driver drove away, surveillance video showed Phillips attempting to shoot at the vehicle.

“This was all because he got hit in the mouth and he didn’t like it,” Weeks told jurors.

Smith offered a similar conclusion after the verdicts were announced.

“He brought a gun to a bar fight… because he’s angry and has a fragile ego,” he said.

Presiding Judge Wade A. Kagarise revoked Phillips’ pending bail for a date to be determined after Smith stated that Phillips’ convictions could result in a sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison. Anastasi objected, noting that Phillips had been out of jail on bail for almost two years without any violations.

“I’m disappointed that the jury saw things differently than we did,” the defense attorney said.

Smith also praised Altoona police officers for their work on this case.

After responding to a report of a shooting, police officers were quick to obtain surveillance video and use it to identify those involved, he said.

He praised follow-up interviews with Phillips, who offered abbreviated versions of what happened and conflicting statements that led officers to conclude it was not an accidental shooting.

“This case was also about divine intervention,” Smith added. “It could easily have been a murder.”

In addition to attempted murder and aggravated assault, the jury found Phillips guilty of misdemeanor charges of possession of an instrument of crime, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.

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