NEW KENSINGTON (KDKA) –The man charged with wounding one man and killing another in New Kensington, Westmoreland County will stand trial.

Raymond Rivera, 34, faced a preliminary hearing Wednesday morning where his attorneys entered a not guilty plea.

Willie Young, who was allegedly shot twice by Rivera, was the only man to testify at the hearing.

Young’s cousin, 37-year-old John Evans was killed on Oct. 20 in the parking lot of the Family Dollar in the Central City Plaza on Fourth Avenue.

Young told the court that Rivera jumped out of his car back in October at the Central City Shopping Plaza and opened fire.

Young said Rivera never spoke until he looked at him and told him, “You are next.”

In the overnight hours following the October shooting, the SWAT team was called out to Brackenridge where a police officer spotted a vehicle fitting the description of the one that witnesses reported fleeing the scene after the shooting.

The car was impounded, but nothing was found in Brackenridge. Rivera turned himself in to police later that day.

Right after Young pointed Rivera out in court as the shooter, he admitted he had been drinking and smoking marijuana the night of the shooting.

Rivera’s defense team ran with that.

Phillip Dilucente said, “Let’s face it, the Commonwealth’s key witness is drinking and drugging and claims he saw our client for 15 seconds. I think if you were a batter in baseball, you would be striking out all day long. I think this case has many issues and credibility is a huge one.”

Defense attorney Jim Ecker said when the trial begins that we will learn that other people also had guns that night.

Rivera remains in the Westmoreland County Jail.

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