The owner of a Port Carbon property testified Monday that he didn’t mean to shoot Dennis Powanda Jr. — but did so three times during a late-night confrontation on Feb. 7, 2023, leaving Powanda paralyzed.
Powanda is facing burglary and other related charges this week at Schuylkill County Courthouse. His criminal trial got underway on Monday morning before Judge William Burke. The trial is expected to conclude on Tuesday. It’s likely that Powanda will take the stand in his own defense today.
The prosecution contends that Powanda broke into a property owned by Vincent Yakaitis at 222 Second St. in Port Carbon that night and stole a blue Sealy-branded bag.
Powanda’s defense is that he did not break into the home and that it was Yakaitis’ intent to shoot and kill him that night because, as his attorney Joe Nahas said, “dead men tell no tales.”
Nahas also told jurors during his opening statement that Yakaitis, the prosecution’s key witness, is telling a story that keeps him from getting charged with attempted homicide.
Commonwealth v. Dennis Powanda Jr.: Day 1
Yakaitis, 77, of Palo Alto, said he was going to his former home in Port Carbon at about 1 a.m. that night to retrieve a title for a vehicle he intended to sell. He testified that he took two guns – a .45 and a 9mm – to store in a safe there. But when he got there, Yakaitis said he witnessed Powanda casually walking toward the front door of his property and then break into it.
“He was fooling around at the door and the next thing you know, he goes in,” Yakaitis testified.
Yakaitis said he waited for a little bit and then made his way to the front door. He told jurors, “I had no intentions of going in (the property).”
Instead, he wanted to listen and learn if there was more than one person inside his property. Throughout his testimony, Yakaitis said his property in Port Carbon had been burglarized twice in the past month prior to this incident with Powanda.
Yakaitis said that as he approached the front door, however, Powanda stormed out and a confrontation quickly turned violent.
“I didn’t want a confrontation. I didn’t expect anything to happen, but it did,” Yakaitis told jurors on Monday as he was cross-examined by Nahas.
Earlier, Yakaitis testified, “The door comes flying open. Powanda comes flying out and almost knocks me over.”
He said Powanda was saying, “You don’t understand. Someone’s chasing me.”
Yakaitis said he ordered Powanda to stay on the ground and backed up to “give myself space.”
He said Powanda charged at him again and nearly knocked him down again. Yakaitis testified that he could have killed Powanda if he had intentions on doing so.
“If I wanted to do anything to dispatch him, I could have done it twice already,” he testified.
Instead, Yakaitis said he knew Powanda wasn’t going to stop but that he had no intentions of hurting the man he suspected of breaking into his property.
“He could have run away and I wasn’t going to do anything,” Yakaitis said.
But when Powanda allegedly charged at him for a third time, Yakaitis said he fired a warning shot on either side of Powanda.
“I was trying to use my head to get out of this situation. He kept charging at me,” he testified. “He would not stay down. Maybe [the warning shots] would make him think a little bit. He wasn’t comprehending anything. Was he on drugs?”
The warning shots did not deter Powanda from allegedly attacking Yakaitis, though, he testified. He said the intruder took one more charge at him and reached for his gun.
“At that point, I knew I had to do something. He was right on top of me,” Yakaitis said. “If he got my gun, I might not be here right now.”
He fired three rounds quickly. Yakaitis said Powanda ran 20 feet along Morris St. and fell. At that point, he called his wife, Georgine, and told her to call 9-1-1 to get someone to the scene to help Powanda.
Cross Exam: Witness’ Credibility Questioned
During his cross-examination of Yakaitis, Nahas aggressively attempted to damage the witness’ credibility. At times, Nahas and Yakaitis raised their voices. Burke had to step in from time to time to cool their heads.
When Yakaitis answered an initial question about the alleged “deplorable” condition of that Port Carbon property with a raised voice, Nahas quickly asked, “Do you get angry a lot?”
Tensions peaked when Nahas repeatedly played a Ring doorbell camera video, using only the audio to highlight what he claimed were key moments in the shooting. In the video, one shot is clearly heard followed by about 25 seconds of him yelling at Powanda to “GET DOWN! GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!”
Another shot is heard followed by a little more yelling and a shorter pause in the gunfire. Finally, a flurry of three shots is heard.
Yakaitis accused Nahas of somehow doctoring the audio and even questioned if that was his own voice he heard. The frequency of the five shots heard on that recording also didn’t match what Yakaitis had testified to earlier.
“That’s not the recording of the shots. You’re trying to tie two things together,” Yakaitis told Nahas.
Nahas asked, “Who’s yelling ‘Get down on the ground?'”
“I don’t know,” Yakaitis replied in an agitated tone.
As the cross-exam continued, Yakaitis accused Nahas of twisting the story.
Nahas continued to pepper him.
“The first shot hit him in the belly, didn’t it,” he asked.
Yakaitis replied, “I don’t know. I shot three shots as he rushed me. I don’t know exactly where they hit.”
Again, Nahas accused Yakaitis of getting angry and suggested that he showed up at his property back in February 2023 looking to shoot someone.
“You wanted to shoot someone,” Nahas said.
Yakaitis flatly rejected that theory and said, “I’m not going to shoot somebody over something he takes in the house. Either I gotta do something or I’m gonna be the one on the ground.”
Also testifying on Monday were Yakaitis’ wife, Georgine, who said she arrived at the scene that night after getting a call from her husband, and Pennsylvania State Police investigator Justin Bedford, who served as lead on this case.
Nahas’ cross-exam of Bedford will start the second day of the trial. During direct testimony on Monday, Bedford said the initial investigation into the case listed Powanda as a suspect for burglary and Yakaitis as a suspect for attempted homicide.
The attempted homicide charge was not pursued, Bedford said, on advice from the Schuylkill County District Attorney’s Office.
JUROR EXCUSED: Prior to the start of Monday’s proceedings, one juror was immediately excused. Frackville councilman Stephen Tertel was excused from jury duty because of a perceived bias he has against Nahas, whose law practice is based in the borough.
The trial went forward with 12 jurors and 1 alternate.
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