CHICORA — A muzzle flash captured by a security camera was the moment state police believe Maximillian W. Halterman was fatally shot at his rental home in Oakland Township, according to testimony Tuesday at a hearing for alleged killer Alec D. Miller.

An investigator with the state police further testified that 19-year-old Miller is seen on the same video footage a short time earlier entering the house March 19 with a long gun. During Miller's preliminary hearing in Chicora, Trooper Robert Rottman said police suspect Miller, a neighbor, shot Halterman and made off with a “large sum of cash and drugs” from the house.

District Judge Lewis Stoughton ordered the teenager to stand trial on charges of homicide, robbery, burglary, trespass and theft. He remains in the Butler County Prison without bail.

Rottman's testimony offered details — some of them previously undisclosed — of the police case against Miller.

Halterman was found dead on the couch at the log cabin-style home where he lived on Davis Road. An autopsy would determine he died of two gunshot wounds to the head, neck and right shoulder.

Police suspect he was shot the night of March 19 but the shooting wasn't reported to police until about 7:30 a.m. March 20 when one of his sisters called 911.

“She believed that someone with the street name 'Shooter' had done this,” Rottman said, referring to the sister.

It didn't take long for investigators to match that nickname to Miller.

The investigation also led troopers to Robbie Dunbar Jr., 28, of Butler, who police allege Miller texted after Halterman was killed.

“I went to Max house and smoked him,” one text read, according to court documents. In another text he admitted shooting Halterman in the head and neck.

“Through your investigation, did you also recover video of this homicide?” asked Laura Pitchford, a county assistant district attorney.

The trooper described a detached garage at Halterman's house that was equipped with a security camera.

“On that video surveillance,” Rottman said, “we were able to view a truck that fits the description of (Miller's) grandparents' (pickup)” arrive at Halterman's home about 7:40 p.m. March 19.

Police suspect the defendant, who lived with his grandparents, had taken the truck without their permission earlier that evening.

The video, Rottman testified, showed “an individual, the defendant, exiting that vehicle with a long rifle, walking up to (Halterman's) house.”

Pitchford asked the trooper if he could see the shot.

“You can see the muzzle flash through a crack in the door,” Rottman said.

But Miller's attorney, public defender Joseph Smith, on cross-examination, asked: “So only one muzzle flash?”

That's what the trooper said he recalled from the footage.

The same man who police believe is Miller is later seen on video leaving and entering Halterman's home several times. He also is seen going into and rummaging through the victim's vehicles parked in the driveway. Investigators allege that the teen was there for 24 minutes and took cash and drugs from the house before leaving in the truck.

“We also know through our investigation,” Rottman told Pitchford, “that after the fact, that night and the following day, (Miller) did have a large sum of money on him.”

He added that police “have statements that he had given other individuals some drugs” after Halterman was killed. But Smith wondered how police knew his client had taken those items if they had not recovered any stolen property from Halterman's home.

“I believe at trial through witness testimony,” Rottman replied, “that we can articulate that he did leave the residence with a large sum of cash and drugs.”

The trooper also acknowledged that Halterman had a “camera system” inside the house. That potential evidence, he noted, is “being looked at” by police computer specialists.

Police eventually arrested Miller on March 21 at the Franklin home of his girlfriend's uncle in Venango County.

But he wasn't talking.

“We asked him if he wanted to talk to us when we picked him up,” Rottman said, “He requested a lawyer and did not want to speak to us so we didn't ask him any questions.”

Miller's girlfriend was with him when he was nabbed. Police also arrested Lamaria M. Franklin, 20, of Winfield Township, for allegedly concealing his whereabouts while she knew authorities were looking for him. She is in the county prison on $100,000 bail on a charge of hindering apprehension or prosecution.

On March 21, police also arrested Dunbar on a similar charge that he tried to conceal Miller from police. He is in prison on $25,000 bail while awaiting his preliminary hearing.