Uppermost on the mind of Paul Harper of Portersville, after being arrested last year and sitting in a police cruiser, was that he didn’t finish off the man he is accused of attempting to kill over the sale of a car.

Harper’s apparent confession to shooting Christopher Galbreath on July 3, 2017, was recorded in a trooper’s vehicle hours after the event. Harper, now 71, told police that he was enraged to learn that Galbreath was selling a Ford car for $30,000 after Harper had sold him the car for $5,500.

The video was shown Tuesday in the courtroom of county Judge William Shaffer in front of Harper’s defense lawyers, Laurel Gift and Danielle Bruno, and Assistant District Attorney Robert Zanella. In the court appearance, Harper’s defense introduced several witnesses they intended to call at trial.

Gift and Bruno questioned state Trooper Dave Naberezny, who was among troopers responding that night, about reading Harper his Miranda rights.

Naberezny testified that Harper didn’t acknowledge that his rights were read to him and the question remains whether Harper’s video confession is the result of being ignorant of those rights.

Miranda rights are given to criminal suspects after they are taken into police custody and before any interrogation, and include advisories that the suspect has the right to remain silent, to consult with an attorney and have an attorney present during questioning, and the right to have an attorney appointed if they are indigent.

Around 10:30 p.m. that day, state police say, Harper went to the Perry Highway home of Christopher and Debra Galbreath with a shotgun and shot Christopher Galbreath in the arm. Galbreath survived and was taken to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Harper is facing charges of felony attempted homicide, aggravated assault and two misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering another person.

On Tuesday in court, video showed Harper in a police vehicle after being arrested at 1354 Wright Road in Perry Township, Lawrence County. Harper’s son, Edward Harper, earlier told police that his father was inside the building and had just shot someone, according to the complaint.

At first Harper appears sleepy in the video, with his eyes closed. He expresses a desire to urinate and state police Lt. Eric Hermick, who is now retired, allows Harper to get out and relieve himself. He then gets back in the car. Hermick stands outside and leans in to the open window by Harper’s side.

“You shot him didn’t you,” Hermick can be heard saying. After some coaxing by police, Harper says: “I wanted to kill that (expletive).”

“If you did, you’d spend the rest of your life in jail,” Hermick replies.

“I’m 70 years, who cares,” Harper says.

A little later, Harper explains his reasoning: “Here’s the thing, I’m 70 years old. My wife died of cancer in 2008. I don’t have a (expletive) thing to live for.”

Later in the video Harper can be heard saying, “I’m going to plead guilty” and “Here’s the thing, if you let me go I’ll get him.”

After telling the trooper to kill him, Harper says, “If you let me go I’ll kill more people. I’ve been a nice person all my life and what’d they do to me. Get your gun out and shoot me.”

After the video was aired prosecutors called Trooper Brian Knirschild to the stand, who testified that he interviewed Harper at the barracks later that night. The trooper testified that he advised Harper of his Miranda rights. In a second video showing the interview the audio wasn’t working.

“He was articulate. Seemed confident,” Knirschild said. Asked how he knew that Harper was the shooter, Knirschild said, “He told me details that only he and the victim would’ve known.”

Knirschild also testified that Harper continued to ask to be killed during his interrogation, saying “He asked me a few times to kill him.”

Harper also said, according to Knirschild, that if his gun hadn’t jammed he would’ve killed Christopher Galbreath.

During a hearing last year Harper’s bail was revoked. District Attorney Richard Goldinger said at the time that Harper allegedly “made statements to the effect that if he got out of jail, he was going to kill the victim.”

Harper’s defense team called Lawrence Guzzardi, a medical doctor who specializes in emergency medicine and medical toxicology.

On Harper’s behavior in the police video, Guzzardi said he acted “unusual” and “inconsistent,” vacillating between being shy at certain points and gregarious at others. Through interviews with Harper at Butler County Prison, Guzzardi concluded that Harper has “several fixed delusions” revolving around Galbreath and the transaction over the Ford.

“One of which is he was defrauded and another that they were mocking him,” Guzzardi said,

He said Harper, in his opinion, is under a false impression that he was duped by Galbreath in the sale of the car.

Harper failed to understand that the car had been improved by Galbreath and, according to Guzzardi, no one associated with the victim was harassing Harper. Harper also had been drinking that night, according to police reports, and that, Guzzardi said, “exacerbated this fixed delusion.”

And so, Guzzardi argued, “He was not capable of making knowing or rational statements.”

Did Harper know what he was doing when he confessed in the police vehicle? Or was he in a state of drunkenness and delusion, unaware of what he was doing? And when he was first arrested that night, was he able to process what his Miranda rights were as read to him by police? These are among the questions that both sides will debate in future court appearances.

Shaffer gave both sides 10 days to file briefs in the case. The defense will argue for the doctor and family witnesses to be included in a future trial. If Zanella and the DA’s office want, they could argue against the inclusion of any or all of them. Shaffer will then make a final decision on the inclusion of witnesses.