Friend says Mark
feared for lifeA defense witness testifies that the
accused murderer slept with his gun
A defense witness testified yesterday that accused cop killer Shane Mark slept with a gun, fearful someone was looking for him.
Mark acknowledges shooting and killing undercover police officer Glen Gaspar at the Kapolei Baskin-Robbins store on March 4, but contends he did not know Gaspar and another officer were policemen looking to arrest him for a Feb. 1 shooting.
Mark's friend Manuel Torres III testified that Mark wanted to turn himself in for the Feb. 1 shooting but feared retribution in prison by friends and family members of the men he shot at.
"He was afraid of jail," said Torres, who let Mark and his girlfriend, Leslie Martin, stay at his Waikiki condo in late February.
Mark is on trial for first-degree murder of Gaspar and first-degree attempted murder of another officer.
The defense attempted to bolster its case that the two plainclothes officers did not identify themselves as police when they grabbed Mark, who feared they were out to kidnap, torture and kill him.
Gaspar's partner, Detective Calvin Sung, in a written report, said he told Mark: "Put your hands up. Police."
However, when pressed yesterday by Mark's lawyer Debra Loy, Sung said: "The only words I told him was, 'Get your hands out of your pocket.'"
When he was asked if he said the word "police" in identifying himself, he said, "No, I didn't."
However, Sung testified he did lift his shirt to show his badge and that Gaspar also lifted his aloha shirt.
Sung did say that Gaspar repeatedly identified himself saying, "Police."
The prosecution played a videotape of part of the arrest to show that police identified themselves. The prosecution contends an officer is heard saying, "Put your hands up. Police," but the tape is not clearly audible.
Also yesterday, Judge Karen Ahn dismissed a female juror after Torres testified that he "thought maybe he (Mark) was too high on something."
The woman had expressed strong views against drug use during jury selection, and attorneys for both sides had agreed not to discuss Mark's drug use.
The defense also questioned witnesses about the Feb. 1 shooting, in which Mark allegedly fired at two men, injuring one, during an argument over a broken monitor and video surveillance camera that he bought from a friend.
Leslie Martin's mother, Jocelyn Martin, testified that 10 to 12 police officers appeared at her Salt Lake apartment to question her daughter.
She said police told her Mark had shot someone and that people were after him.
She said she relayed that information to her daughter.