Mark trial jury
undecided after 3 daysThe group grapples with weight
of the various charges
After more than 19 hours of deliberation over three days, the Oahu jury in the trial of the man accused of fatally shooting Honolulu police officer Glen Gaspar recessed for the weekend late yesterday without a verdict.
Shane Mark, 29, is on trial in Circuit Court for first-degree murder for shooting Gaspar, 40, who was one of six plainclothes policeman who entered a Kapolei ice cream store March 4 to arrest Shane for allegedly shooting a man on Feb. 1.
In the struggle to arrest Mark, Gaspar was shot three times and another officer was allegedly threatened. The jury is also deciding whether Shane is guilty of first-degree attempted murder for the second policeman or guilty of second-degree attempted murder for the February incident.
In the slaying of Gaspar, the jury could find him guilty or not guilty for first-degree murder, or they could deliberate over lesser charges of second-degree murder or manslaughter.
In deciding those charges, jurors were instructed to consider Shane's state of mind at the time of the shooting.
The defense has argued he acted in self-defense from a desperate belief that associates of the men he shot at Feb. 1 were after him, his pregnant girlfriend, former girlfriend and daughter. The defense said he did not realize the plainclothes men trying to arrest him were police officers.
The prosecution has argued that the officers identified themselves as police.
The jury was given 136 pages of instructions before it began deliberations late Wednesday. The jury is expected to resume deliberations Monday.