Suspect in assault testifies witnesses are liars

WILKES-BARRE – Robert Roberts is lying. So are Stephen Hurst and Desiree Antonitis. That’s what Ian Bradley Corbin told prosecutors in the second and final day of his trial on charges of aggravated assault and illegal possession of a firearm.

A jury will continue deliberating this morning after being unable to come to a decision Tuesday afternoon.

Charges against Corbin, 25, stem from an April 7, 2007 incident at the Woodlands Inn & Resort in Plains Township.

“I did not come down the hill (in the Woodlands parking lot) shooting at Mr. Roberts, Mr. Hurst and Miss Antonitis,” Corbin said. “I never fired the firearm at them.”

Police said Corbin fired multiple shots, hitting Roberts in the shoulder and nearly hitting Hurst, while endangering Antonitis. Hurst is a friend of Roberts; Antonitis is Roberts’ fiancee.

Police said Corbin mistook Roberts for a man he fought with earlier inside the club, and came back for revenge.

But that’s not the case, Corbin testified Tuesday. He said someone punched him in the face while he was in the bathroom at the club. He doesn’t remember anything else until he was outside at his friend’s car.

“I sat inside and heard people yelling, or some sort of commotion,” Corbin said. “I looked for a (cell) phone to call my friends, because I didn’t know where they were. Then I saw a gun in the door.”

Corbin, who said he is two credits shy of graduating from Bucknell University, said he picked up the gun and put it on his lap, figuring he could protect himself if the people outside were his attackers.

“I didn’t feel safe. I was concerned for my friends,” Corbin said. That’s when he got out of the car with the gun, and began running toward the Woodlands screaming his friends’ names, he said.

Corbin says Roberts attacked him, and the two began wrestling to make sure the gun didn’t go off. That’s when Roberts got shot.

“I didn’t purposely fire the gun at Mr. Roberts. I was trying to keep it away from us,” Corbin testified. After the scuffle, Corbin said he didn’t remember any other information until he woke up in a jail cell.

Luzerne County Assistant District Attorney David Pedri used six witnesses and an expert witness in two days in an attempt to dispel Corbin’s story.

Three Woodlands security officers, a state trooper and Roberts, Hurst and Antonitis testified during the two-day trial.

Roberts, Hurst and Antonitis testified that Corbin began shooting at them in the parking lot behind the club. At one point, they say Corbin said, “What’s up now,” and fired three shots – one hit Roberts’ Jeep, another strayed and one into Roberts’ right shoulder.

Roberts said the two then got into a scuffle, and Roberts tried to get the gun off Corbin.

Security officers and police struggled to get the gun from Corbin, according to testimony, and then placed him in handcuffs. That’s when Woodlands security officer Charles Balogh said he heard Corbin admit to shooting Roberts.

“Decisions. Some are good, some are bad,” Pedri said. “…Decisions made by (Corbin) were mostly good (going to college). But he made a decision on April 7, 2007. One bad decision.”

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