ST. CLAIRSVILLE — A man charged with the attempted murder of a truck driver in a shooting that occurred alongside Interstate 470 in Belmont County 18 months ago is on trial this week.

Malcolm Alcindor Williams, an over-the-road truck driver from Atmore, Alabama, is charged with first-degree felony attempted murder with a firearm specification, discharge of a firearm near a prohibited premise and second-degree felony felonious assault with a firearm specification. His trial began with jury selection Tuesday morning; opening statements began at 1 p.m.

Williams is accused of shooting another truck driver, Michael Brundage of Ellenboro, West Virginia, in his face on the side of Interstate 470 around 10:30 p.m. Jan. 30, 2024. The shooting occurred after Brundage stopped his truck and consulted with a mechanic by phone when the vehicle became disabled in the westbound lanes of the highway.

During the first day of the trial, Brundage was the last of five witnesses to take the stand. Others included Sgts. Warren Rollings and Jeremy Border of the St. Clairsville Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, who responded to the report of the shooting; Matthew Moore, the mechanic who was talking with Brundage by phone when the shooting occurred; and a 911 dispatcher from Pleasants County, West Virginia.

Belmont County Prosecutor Kevin Flanagan explained that Brundage informed Moore that he had been shot. Moore, in turn, called Brundage’s employer, who reported the shooting by calling 911. Since the employer was in the Pleasant County area, that is where the call was received and relayed to local officials.

When the victim took the stand, the prosecution played audio of patrol investigators interviewing him a few days after the shooting occurred. On that recording, Brundage described how he had been outside his truck checking the engine after it labored to climb the long hill that leads from the Ohio River west toward St. Clairsville when he noticed another tractor-trailer slowing down and pulling over some distance ahead of his own truck. He said he saw a man walking along the berm from that truck back toward him and his truck.

“And he walked to me with his hands in his coat pockets the whole way to me, and it seemed like 10 minutes before he got to me,” Brundage said in the recorded interview. “… And when he got closer to me, when he was almost to me, I walked towards him right there by my truck to tell him everything was OK.”

Brundage said the man, who he said was of African descent and dressed all in black, asked if he needed help. Brundage said he responded that he did not and that the issue with his truck was just a fuel filter.

“And he pulls out a gun and shoots me right in the face,” Brundage told the patrolman on the recording. “I seen the fire light up, heard the gunshot … it took me a couple minutes to go to the ground.”

Brundage told the patrol that he felt as if he were fighting someone who was grabbing him as he went down. He speculated that the man wanted to rob him and noted that he had left his wallet in his truck.

Brundage said he had been using his cellphone as a flashlight and that he dropped it when he fell. He was talking to Moore on a headset, which he said had noise canceling technology, so Moore did not hear the shot. After he found his phone on the ground, he took a selfie that showed the wound to his face and sent it to Moore, who then set the reporting of the crime in motion.

Brundage testified that he held pressure to the wound on his face while waiting for help to arrive. He did not realize that he had a large exit wound in his neck where blood gushed out. He said he was able to answer questions from responding law enforcement and emergency medical personnel and remained conscious “the whole time” while he was being transported to WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital. After the hospital performed initial treatment, Brundage was transferred to WVU Medicine Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Brundage noted that the gunman left the shell casing at the scene. He testified that he had not had any confrontations with other drivers that day.

“It just seems kind of weird to me how it all went down,” he told the court.

Testimony will resume at 9 a.m. today, and the trial is expected to continue through Thursday or Friday.