Dustin Rice had used cocaine, marijuana and alcohol before falling asleep in a chair at his McKeesport tattoo shop.
He was awakened early July 18, 2015, he testified Thursday, by an acquaintance who broke in, struck him in the head with a glass cane and threatened to kill him if he didn’t hand over his money.
"We start fighting,” Rice said. “It’s like a duel. We’re sword fighting inside the shop.”
Rice, who had a 5-foot-long wooden staff in the store, said the fight with Dennis Pence — and the man’s pit bull who was biting his leg -—spilled onto Walnut Street and eventually down 24th Street.
It ended, police said, when Rice, 42, struck Mr. Pence, 54, with the staff, killing him — more than a block away from the shop.
Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski presided over a non-jury trial in the case and will render his verdict Wednesday.
Prosecutors are seeking a conviction of first-degree murder, but the defense argued that if Rice, who has a previous felony conviction for a drug offense, is guilty, it is of voluntary manslaughter.
Assistant district attorney Jonathan Schultz repeatedly asked Rice on cross-examination why the testimony he provided Wednesday and Thursday differed from the statement he gave police in the hours after the incident.
Rice, who appeared to be impaired in his interrogation video, said he was high and later in withdrawal during his questioning and that he recalled details better in the days and months afterward when he was sober.
“I wasn’t in my right mind when I was at the county,” he said.
During his testimony, Rice said it was not clear to him how the fight culminated a block from the shop. When it ended, police were already on the way, and he walked up to the first responding officer and told him what happened.
“I wanted it to be over,” Rice said. “I knew the police would be safety.”
But in his interview with detectives that night, Mr. Schultz pointed out, Rice did not mention being attacked by the dog.
Mr. Schultz told Judge Borkowski that Rice’s story doesn’t make sense, and that a neighbor on the street saw Mr. Pence pounding on the front door of a house, yelling for help, before he was killed.
Although there was evidence of a scuffle inside the tattoo shop, Mr. Schultz said Rice could have stopped at any point before swinging the final blow.
Defense attorney Owen Seman told Judge Borkowski that he was arguing imperfect self-defense -—his client feared for his life, even if it was not a reasonable belief. Further, he said, Rice was provoked by Mr. Pence breaking into his shop and assaulting him, proven by the large bruise on his client’s head. Because the entire incident was over in less than two minutes, Mr. Seman said, his client never had time to stop and reflect on his actions.
But Mr. Schultz said there was no evidence of the struggle in the street, and the neighbor didn’t hear anything until Mr. Pence pounded on the door.
“He pursued the victim down 24th Street,” the prosecutor said. “He chose a large weapon. He chose to chase him. He chose to hit him while he was down. He chose to continue swinging.”
Paula Reed Ward: pward@post-gazette.com, 412-263-2620 or on Twitter: @PaulaReedWard.
First Published: February 3, 2017, 5:09 a.m.
