New information has surfaced to confirm the alibi of a Penn student accused of attempted murder, the student's lawyer says.
Two witnesses are willing to attest that College junior Bryan Warner was on campus at the same time that police believe he shot a West Philadelphia man in the thigh outside a deli at 52nd and Spruce streets, according to Warner's lawyer, Richard Harris.
Both the shooting victim and another witness identified Warner in a photo lineup.
Warner is charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault.
His preliminary hearing was originally scheduled for Feb. 16, but prosecutors postponed it to April 5 after receiving surveillance footage from Penn's Division of Public Safety. The video may confirm Warner's whereabouts at the time of the incident.
Harris said that though he has not seen the video, he thinks the footage indicates that Warner was on campus prior to the shooting.
District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Cathie Abookire declined to comment on the content of the tape.
Harris did say, however, that two witnesses can verify that Warner was inside the St. Elmo fraternity house, located at 3647 Locust Walk, at the time of the shooting.
Penn Law professor Paul Robinson said that the testimony would not necessarily mean that the prosecution will drop the charges against Warner.
Prosecutors will probably attempt to predict a jury's reaction to all available evidence and proceed accordingly, he said.
Robinson added that though surveillance footage is commonly used to confirm a defendant's alibi, there are sometimes complications concerning the quality of such tapes.
"You have the problem of the image being blurry or unclear," he said.
Robinson also said that the two eyewitnesses placing Warner at the crime scene could offset any testimony given to establish an alibi.
"If [the prosecution] thinks they have a case, the fact that there is conflicting evidence would in itself not make them withdraw the case," he said.
Following Warner's arrest, Harris requested that the Division of Public Safety release its surveillance footage to the District Attorney's Office for further review, division officials said.
According to University policy, tapes are stored for no more than 30 days and are released immediately if they are "directly related to a criminal investigation, arrest or subpoena."
This is the first time a division tape has been subpoenaed in several years, division officials said.
