Convicted cop killer
faces lifeThe deputy prosecutor labels
Shane Mark "a persistent
offender"
Prosecutors are asking that convicted cop killer Shane Mark be sentenced to an extended term of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Mark, 29, was convicted in December of second-degree murder and a firearm offense for the March 2003 slaying of officer Glen Gaspar. He faces a life term with parole when sentenced today.
Mark was also convicted of second-degree attempted assault and a firearm offense in an unrelated Feb. 1, 2003, shooting.
In court papers, Deputy Prosecutor Chris Van Marter asked the court to find that Mark is both a "persistent offender" and a "multiple offender" whose extended imprisonment is necessary for protection of the public.
Mark's attorneys could not be reached for comment. But deputy public defender Debra Loy has also filed a motion to dismiss the counts in the indictment that the jury could not reach verdicts on.
According to prosecutors, Mark was convicted in March 1998 of second-degree burglary, breaking into a car and auto theft. He was ordered to serve concurrent five-year prison terms.
He was repeatedly denied parole because of prison misconduct, including possession of drugs while incarcerated, and was ordered to serve the entire five years. Mark was released from prison on Nov. 10, 2002.
According to Van Marter, less than a month later, Mark traded $100 worth of methamphetamine for a firearm that he used Feb. 1, 2003, to shoot a man in Moanalua. He used the same gun a month later, on March 4, 2003, to kill Gaspar.
Mark was "using, buying, selling, trading and otherwise dealing with methamphetamine" from December 2002 until his arrest for killing Gaspar, Van Marter noted. And during the same period, Mark resumed his habit of stealing from others.
A search of the car that Mark drove to the Kapolei Baskin-Robbins unearthed a "substantial amount of jewelry, coins, golf clubs" and other items that had been reported stolen in a home burglary, Van Marter said.
Mark's criminal history includes assaulting a police officer during a foot chase through a Waikiki hotel after police tried to pull him over for driving recklessly.
In November, Mark pleaded no contest to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and two drug offenses in connection with the Feb. 1, 2003, shooting.
Van Marter said Mark has shown a "blatant disregard for the rights of others and a poor attitude toward the law, especially law enforcement officers.
"That the defendant shot and killed one man and shot and wounded another man so soon after serving a lengthy prison sentence are facts which, in and of themselves, justify imposing an extended term of incarceration," Van Marter wrote in his briefs.
Van Marter is also asking that Mark's prison terms in the Feb. 1, 2003, shooting and Gaspar's murder be served one after the other to reflect the seriousness of the crimes, deter further criminal conduct and protect the public from further crimes by Mark.
Gaspar, a 12-year police veteran, was part of a plainclothes detail that was staking out the Kapolei Baskin-Robbins March 4, 2003, in hopes of arresting Mark. Police had been searching for him in connection with the earlier shooting in Moanalua.
Gaspar was shot as he and another officer, Calvin Sung, tried to arrest Mark inside the ice cream shop. Mark was meeting with his former girlfriend and their 10-year-old daughter, who were visiting from the mainland.
Mark had testified he did not know the plainclothes officers were police and thought they were out to kill him for the Feb. 1, 2003, shooting. Sung and other officers testified they and Gaspar identified themselves and declared their intent to arrest Mark even before Mark pulled out his gun.