BELLEFONTE -- A former Uniontown man will be allowed to hire expert witnesses to help his defense in a murder case, but a Centre County judge ruled Monday that prosecutors may continue to seek the death penalty.
Andrew A. Rogers, 29, has told State College police that he was acting in self-defense when he fatally beat a Penn State University student with a baseball bat and rolling pin in February after an alleged dispute about money and drugs.
In a pretrial hearing yesterday, Judge Bradley P. Lunsford permitted Rogers' public defenders to hire a private investigator to interview the state's trial witnesses and a psychiatrist or psychologist to evaluate Rogers' mental health.
The judge also let the defense team consult with a "mitigation specialist," who would assist in the preparation for the potential penalty phase of the trial. Defense attorneys did not estimate the cost of the experts.
Meanwhile, Lunsford upheld District Attorney Michael Madeira's discretion to pursue the death penalty, although the prosecutor said he hasn't decided whether he will ask a jury to sentence Rogers to death.
Rogers' defense attorneys argued that Lunsford's May ruling to dismiss second-degree murder and robbery charges eliminated Madeira's evidence of aggravated circumstances for capital punishment.
Rogers, a 1995 graduate of Uniontown Area High School, still faces charges of first- and third-degree murder, receiving stolen property and theft.
Madeira said he would decide about the death penalty before jury selection.
"I have no intention of pushing this to the end (of the trial)," Madeira said. "No intention to use this as a bargaining tool."
State College police didn't know about the Feb. 23 bludgeoning of Youngcheol Park, 24, of South Korea, until Rogers drove to Fayette County and told a Uniontown police lieutenant four days later.
In a written statement, Rogers claimed that Park and another man, whom he identified as "Sweet," attacked him in his State College home. Park and "Sweet" tried to suffocate Rogers with a plastic garbage bag and threatened him with a gun, according to the statement.
Rogers declared that Park was a drug dealer and "Sweet" was looking through $850 cash that was on a shelf in Rogers' home.
Madeira said yesterday that police have probed tips about many people identified as a possible match for "Sweet," but he doubted that portion of Rogers' story.
"I believe that the 'Sweet,' at this point, does not exist," Madeira told the judge.
Also yesterday, Lunsford declined to rule on a defense motion to move the case out of Centre County or to select jurors from another county. Rogers' attorneys have argued that pretrial publicity has prejudiced the jury pool.
"This has been a relatively quiet case," Lunsford said.
The case was continued until the October trial term.
