The prosecution in the murder trial of George T. Lightcap IV of Nanty Glo was able to wrap up its list of witnesses by noon on Friday, March 3, and the defense began presenting its list of witnesses.
Lightcap is accused of killing Ray E. Stringer of Tyrone last August in a bar fight in Nanty Glo during a firemen\’s convention.
Cambria County Assistant District Attorneys Gary Costlow and Tammy Bernstein opened the day\’s proceedings by hearing testimony from Ann Schilling-Higgins who is a paramedic with the Blacklick Valley Ambulance Service based in Nanty Glo and the Jackson Township Ambulance Service.
Higgins, who has been in the ambulance field for the past seven years, said when she arrived at the Nanty Glo VFW in the early morning hours of Aug. 19, she found Stringer laying on his back in a pool of blood in the foyer which serves as the entrance into the social club bar room.
Assessing Stringer, she testified his breathing was very slow and shallow. Her efforts to insert a breathing tube into Stringer\’s throat were unsuccessful because his throat was filled with blood and vomit.
Ambulance personnel transported Stringer to nearby McMullen Memorial Field where a medical helicopter had landed. A short time after being taken to the Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown, Stringer was declared dead.
Next to take the witness stand was Nanty Glo Police Officer Steve Szymusiak.
Attempting to find out who had been involved in the altercation with Stringer, the barmaids Michelle Lightcap, older sister of the defendant, and Melissa Meyer, both initially said they did not know. Meanwhile, another person came to Szymusiak and said the party he was looking for might be George Lightcap. A short time later, Michelle Lightcap called the police officer aside and told him that it was her brother who had been fighting with Stringer.
At 2:55 a.m. Szymusiak testified, while he was at the police station, located about a half block from the VFW post, he got a call from another officer who was at the VFW, telling him that Lightcap had returned to the scene. Szymusiak asked that Lightcap be brought to the police station. When Lightcap entered the station, Szymusiak said he observed black and blue marks under Lightcap’s left eye and also that the ring finger on his right hand had a cut and was swollen. Szymusiak advised Lightcap of his Miranda Rights and told him that Stringer had died.
Lightcap was then transported to the hospital where a blood alcohol test revealed an alcohol level of 0.13. During cross examination of the police officer, Attorney Robert Davis Gleason presented several photos of Lightcap showing the condition of his eye and after having the police officer verify that the photos were indeed of Lightcap, the photos were passed around for all the jurors to view.
Cambria County Chief Deputy Coroner James S. Zangalia was called to the witness stand in place of county coroner Dennis Kwiatkowski who recently had surgery. It was the county coroner who had actually observed the autopsy done on the body of Stringer and who had officially ruled the death a homicide. The deputy testified that it is the duty of the coroner to determine the cause and manner of death of a person.
Performing the autopsy on Stringer was Dr. John Yerger, a pathologist at Memorial Medical Center. Because Dr. Yerger was going to be out of town at trial time, and not wanting to delay the proceedings, Judge Norman Krumenacker III allowed Dr. Yerger to testify by way of video tape. The jury heard the doctor say that in doing the autopsy, he found that Stringer had a broken nose, a cut of the left eye lid and that the eye was severely swollen and black and blue. Stringer also had a seven centimeter cut on the back of his head. Asked what the length of a centimeter was in inches, Dr. Yerger said a centimeter was a little less then one half inch.
Dr. Yerger testified that Stringer had died of concessive blunt force injuries to his brain.
Asked if the wounds Stringer received could have been inflicted by one punch, Dr. Yerger said \”yes, it was possible,\” but in his opinion, Stringer had received more than one blow.
A blood alcohol test on a sample of Stringer\’s blood was done by an independent lab and it was reported that he had a .20 alcohol level. Dr. Yerger added that there were no drugs in Stringer\’s blood other than those administered by the ambulance personnel.
The pathologist said that he had examined Stringer\’s hands and did not find anything abnormal. No cuts, fractures or swelling. He said he paid particular attention to the hands because of Stringer being in a fight.
\”I found no skin tears, no broken bones in either of Stringer\’s hands,\” the doctor testified.
Dr. Yerger was asked if he could determine how much alcohol Stringer had consumed to give him a .20 level. The pathologist said that considering Stringer\’s height and weight, and the time that had passed, there was a textbook formula that would show he had consumed eight 12-ounce beers or eight shots of alcohol.
With the conclusion of the video, the prosecution rested.
The defense opened its case with testimony from Jason Emerson of Nanty Glo, a life-long friend and school mate of Lightcap. Emerson said that Lightcap had come to his home in the early morning hours of Aug. 19.
Emerson said the first thing he noticed was that Lightcap had a swollen and red eye. He asked what happened and Lightcap said he had been in a fight at the VFW. Emerson said Lightcap stayed about 20 minutes to a half hour. But, when he heard the helicopter overhead, he called his fiancé who came to Emerson’s house and she and Lightcap returned to the VFW which was only a few blocks away.
Next on the stand was Natalie Kasecky, Lightcap’s fiancé. Kasecky said that she and Lightcap had been together for seven years. In fact, Aug. 18 was their anniversary of being a couple. They have a six-year-old child together. Kasecky testified that because it was their anniversary, they had decided to celebrate and had gone to the beer tent set up for the fire company convention. She said they then went to the VFW about 11 p.m. Taking seats together at the bar, she said that a man behind Lightcap suddenly began to say, \”Somebody want to fight? I’ll fight. Let\’s go right now.\”
Kasecky said Lightcap said or did nothing but continued conversation with her. The man, later identified as Stringer, repeated the statement with similar remarks and was finally told by the barmaid to leave. Kasecky said Stringer left the bar and went into the foyer, but later returned. Opening the door he spoke a number of vulgarities and motioned with his hands for Lightcap to come out, but Kasecky said neither she nor Lightcap left immediately.
Barmaids Michelle Lightcap and Meyer, both gave testimony that was very similar to that given by Kasecky. Michelle Lightcap said that at one point she took Stringer to the door and told him to leave. She also said that she told Stringer at another point that she was going to call 9-1-1 and he replied, \”Go ahead. I’m going to kill someone.\”
At the conclusion of Michelle Lightcap\’s testimony, the judge recessed the trial until 9 a.m. this morning.
The judge said Lightcap is expected to take the stand this morning. He said Lightcap was the only witness the defense was expected to present today. The case could go to the jury by this afternoon.
