Mar 4, 2019 4 min read

The homicide trial for a man accused of shooting and killing a man outside a Fayette County bar started Monday and included testimony from the victim’s girlfriend.

“The biggest asset in this case is your common sense,” said Assistant District Attorney Sean Lementowski to a jury picked for the trial of Nathan Yasek, 36, now of Hopwood, previously of Eighty Four, in Washington County.

Yasek is accused of fatally shooting Timothy C. Durst, 54, of Uniontown in the parking lot of Rizz’s bar and restaurant in downtown Uniontown on Nov. 24, 2017. Police said Yasek was urinating in the parking lot at his truck when Durst approached him from behind.

Lementowski said the commonwealth won’t hide the fact Durst was the instigator of the events that led to his death as Lementowski said in his opening statement Durst spotted Yasek, approached him and punched the back of Yasek’s head and face.

“He (Yasek) didn’t punch back, he didn’t push him (Durst) away, he didn’t yell for help,” Lementowski said, adding Yasek used deadly force on an unarmed man by allegedly pulling out a gun and shooting Durst. “You have to determine if that’s reasonable.”

Yasek’s defense attorney, Jack Connor, said two aspects of self-defense includes someone believing they’re in danger and the other is under the Castle Doctrine where it’s justified to use deadly force when someone is entering your home. In the last few years, the doctrine was extended to someone entering an occupied vehicle to cause bodily injury.

Even though police said Yasek was urinating outside the vehicle, Connor told jurors Yasek’s girlfriend was in the passenger side of the truck at the time.

Durst’s girlfriend, Michelle Toth, testified she and Durst were walking back to their vehicle after picking up a pizza from the Titlow Tavern where they had a few drinks with Durst’s nephew when Durst spotted Yasek’s parked truck.

“He said, ‘There’s that mother (expletive)’s truck,'” Toth testified, adding they know one another because Yasek was dating Toth’s neighbor. “He said, ‘I’ll be right back. Stay here.'”

Toth testified she wasn’t paying full attention to the scene, but heard two men arguing followed by one shot, and when she then dropped the pizza and ran over to the truck, she saw Durst backing away with his hands in the air and then Yasek’s girlfriend exiting the vehicle in a panic.

Toth became emotional when recalling going over to Durst, who made his way in front of the truck to a telephone pole he was holding and then fell to the ground.

She testified she learned he was pronounced dead at the hospital 15 minutes after she arrived.

Connor asked Toth about Durst’s mood when he left after seeing Yasek’s truck. She testified he wasn’t happy or sad, but indicated he had something of a grin on his face.

Judge Steve Leskinen asked Toth if she was sure she heard one shot as a police forensic expert testified two shell casings were found, but she said she only remembered hearing one shot.

After the shooting, police said, Yasek went into the bar, where Sheriff James Custer was eating dinner with his family, and told him he shot Durst in self-defense.

Custer testified Monday Yasek approached him with his empty hands extended and said to him, “Sheriff, I just shot a man outside in self-defense, and I’m turning myself in.”

Custer secured the .45 pistol as well as Yasek’s wallet where he had a concealed carry permit and told him to wait until police arrival.

State police Cpl. Richard Hunter, a forensic expert, testified he photographed a blood trail from the driver’s side door to the telephone pole in front of the truck and also testified to taking photographs of Yasek while he was in custody at Uniontown Police Department.

Connor showed Hunter the photographs he took of Yasek and asked if he saw any bruising or recalled any bruising on Yasek’s face and head, which Hunter said he did not see any signs of swelling.

Testimony will continue this morning in the Fayette County Courthouse.

Yasek is free on $100,000 bond.