Shane Mark looked yesterday at a presentation by Deputy Prosecutor Chris Van Marter.
Self-defense claimed
in Mark trialHis lawyer says the convicted
killer did not point his gun
with intent to kill an officer
Shane Mark was fighting for his life when he shot a man in Moanalua in February 2003, Mark's attorney argued yesterday.
And Mark, convicted last year of killing police officer Glen Gaspar, did not point the gun at Gaspar's partner, officer Calvin Sung, with the intention of killing him or anyone, but was only trying to free himself and protect his daughter, girlfriend and unborn son, deputy public defender Debra Loy said in opening statements.
Gaspar, 40, was shot three times and killed as he and other officers struggled with Mark over control of Mark's gun on March 4, 2003, at the Kapolei Baskin-Robbins.
Mark, 29, went on trial yesterday in Circuit Court for the second time in the two separate cases. A jury could not reach a verdict in December on a first-degree attempted murder charge relating to Sung. It also could not come up with a verdict for second-degree attempted murder and firearm charges for trying to shoot John Piko in the Feb. 1 Moanalua incident.
Gaspar, Sung and four other plainclothes officers had gone to the ice cream store hoping to locate and arrest Mark after receiving a tip that he would be meeting his former girlfriend and their 10-year-old daughter there.
Deputy Prosecutor Chris Van Marter contends that Mark was paranoid and overreacted by shooting an unarmed Denny Paikai and attempting to shoot Piko during a heated confrontation over the return of a camera in the parking lot of a Moanalua church.
And because Mark did not want to get arrested for the Moanalua shooting, he tried to shoot his way out when confronted by Gaspar and Sung a month later, Van Marter said.
Loy said that until the Kapolei shooting, Mark and his pregnant girlfriend, Leslie Martin, were on the run and in fear for their lives after Mark shot Paikai in self-defense in Moanalua. (Mark was convicted of assault in the Paikai case.)
Mark, charged with first-degree murder in Gaspar's death, was convicted in December of the lesser charge of second-degree murder for intentionally shooting and killing Gaspar. Second-degree murder is punishable by life imprisonment with parole. First-degree murder or attempted first-degree murder is punishable by life without parole.
The new trial resumes Monday and is expected to wrap up by the end of next week.
