The long awaited trial of a city man accused of perpetrating a 2016 shooting death of an alleged victim began in the courtroom of Lycoming County Judge Nancy Butts Monday morning.

In September 2023, Dawud M. Rogers, 43, was charged with homicide, aggravated assault, illegal possession of a firearm, carrying a firearm without a license and possession of an instrument of crime for the Dec. 30, 2016 shooting that occurred at an auto repair shop in the 2000 block of Boyd Street.

“This is a story of robbery, revenge and retreat from the crime scene,” First Assistant District Attorney Martin Wade told the jury during his opening statement.

Rogers and the alleged victim engaged in a disagreement outside of a bar that ended with the alleged victim knocking Rogers unconscious and stealing two iPhones, cash, keys and an I.D. from him, Wade said.

In an ironic twist, both required medical intervention, as the alleged victim broke his hand when he struck Rogers. Just rooms away, Rogers had ample ability to settle the matter through the justice system, but he made another choice, Wade told the jury.

“He chose the path of street justice,” the ADA said.

A week following the incident, Rogers spotted the alleged victim at an auto repair shop in Newberry, where he waited until he was alone and his back turned to fire multiple shots into him, the prosecution maintains.

He then fled the scene, leaving behind no fingerprints or DNA, but forgot something else important, a friend that he had accompanied to the shop that day. This friend later gave police a statement.

Additionally, Rogers left a digital footprint, with cell phone data showing him in the vicinity of the crime scene. The cellular data also tracked Rogers’ path to Philadelphia, where his mother had a residence.

“He got his revenge, but revenge comes with a price,” Wade said.

“This week is the end of the road for the defendant. He thought he was slick, but he wasn’t slick enough,” he told the jury.

“Keep an eye on the witness stand. That’s where every bit of your evidence will come from,” defense attorney Robert Hoffa implored the jury, stressing that credibility is crucial in any trial.

“We don’t have to present a thing, but if something comes out from a prosecution witness that favors defense arguments, you can consider that. The defense starts at the time the trial starts,” he stressed.

Likening a trial to a movie or novel, Hoffa said that every witness is a new scene or chapter.

“Its a whodunit. And sometimes when you’re watching along, you think you’ve got it figured out, only to be disappointed when you get to the end because it didn’t go where you thought it would,” Hoffa said.

“And at the end of this trial, you’ll find that the Commonwealth did not meet its burden,” the defense attorney added.

Hoffa also touched on the argument of reasonable doubt, stressing that no witnesses exist who can definitively identify Rogers as the shooter.

A nearby residence testified that she witnessed the shooting while attempting to park along Boyd Street.

The individual, described as tall and thin, clad in all black and wearing a ski mask approached a man standing at the rear of a white vehicle and fired several shots into him, and initially walked away, before returning and firing several more shots, and subsequently fleeing in what she described as a gray or silver Chevrolet Malibu.

During cross examination, the witness acknowledged that she did not see where the shooter initially came from.

Surveillance video from a nearby club that captured the shooting around 3 p.m. was obtained by city police, which showed a mechanic escorting the alleged victim to his vehicle before returning to the shop to retrieve the vehicle’s keys, leaving the alleged victim alone at the car.

Moments later, a tall, thin man dressed all in black and wearing a mask exits a blueish Volkswagen parked across, approaches the alleged victim from behind, and fires several shots into him. The shooter then starts to return to the car but turns around and fires several more shots at the alleged victim.

A loaded 45 caliber handgun was found near the victim, authorities testified.

The mechanic seen in the video testified that after returning to the shop to receive the vehicle’s keys, he heard many rounds of gunfire, followed by a pause and then six or more shots.

He did not see the shooting or a dark car with tinted windows fleeing the seen, he said.

A pathologist called by the state testified that seven rounds impacted the alleged victim, striking him in the right wrist, right arm, chest, abdomen and back.

Several internal organs were damaged by the bullets, including the alleged victim’s intestines, kidney, lung and cervical vertebrae, she said.

A witness who was with Rogers throughout the day of the shooting stated that Rogers had asked him about acquiring inspection stickers for a car he recently bought from a mechanic that the witness frequented.

Later that afternoon, the witness drove himself and Rogers to the auto shop in Roger’s vehicle, a blue-ish Volkswagon, where the witness entered the shop, followed by the alleged victim, who had arrived independent of the other two.

The witness said he was driving due to his possessing a driver’s license, whereas Roger’s did not.

A mechanic on duty informed the alleged victim that his car was ready and walked him out to it, the witness testified.

After some time, the mechanic returned to the shop, and shots rang out, at which point the witness ran around the back of the building and witnessed a man, who he identified as Rogers, shooting at the alleged victim, he said.

The shooter then got into the car Rogers and the witness had arrived in.

During cross examination, Hoffa pointed to several inconsistencies between the witness’ testimony Monday and his previous statements during police interviews and the preliminary hearing.

During the preliminary hearing, as well as a Feb. 13, 2017 police interrogation, the witness stated that he did not recognize the shooter because he was wearing a mask, Hoffa argued.

“I’m not Superman. I can’t see through clothes,” the witness said during the preliminary hearing.

“I can’t honestly say that I can see through a mask,” the witness said, explaining why he previously said he didn’t recognize the shooter.

However, he added that he knew all along that Rogers was the shooter, stressing that only he and Rogers were in the vehicle when they arrived at the repair shop.

The trial is scheduled to continue Tuesday morning at 9 a.m.