Hacking deal looks likely
tiny dancer
By Stephen Hunt
The Salt Lake Tribune
Prosecuting and defense attorneys aren't talking, but a resolution in
the Mark Hacking murder case appears more and more likely.
Although Hacking's trial is set to begin Monday before 3rd District
Judge Denise Lindberg, another murder trial, for Joshua Leotos Charles, has
been scheduled for that same day before the same judge.
Unlike in the Hacking case, however, the trial for Charles appears
ready to begin on Monday - as evidenced by motions regarding expert
witnesses, evidentiary issues and jury questioning.
Nothing of that sort has occurred in the Hacking case - no motions,
no notification of experts, no discussion about the logistics of picking a
jury for a high-profile defendant.
Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Patricia Parkinson, who
is prosecuting Charles, said Wednesday that his trial was still a go.
So is Hacking, who is scheduled to appear in a hearing Friday
before Lindberg, headed for a plea?
Lead prosecutor Robert Stott refused to say and downplayed the
double-booking by Judge Lindberg, noting that it is not unusual for judges
to set several trials on the same day in anticipation that one or more will
be resolved or postponed.
"If the Hacking case goes, it will be the one that goes to trial,"
Stott insisted. "The Hacking case is the No. 1 priority."
Hacking, 28, is charged with first-degree felony murder for
allegedly shooting his sleeping wife,
27-year-old Lori Hacking, in the head at their Salt Lake City
apartment in the early hours of July 19.
He is charged with three additional second-degree felony counts of
obstructing justice for disposing of the body, a mattress and the murder
weapon, a .22-caliber rifle.
Lori Hacking's body was found Oct. 1 at the Salt Lake County
landfill. The mattress was discovered in a Dumpster near the Hackings'
apartment. The rifle has not been located.
David Gehris, spokesman for Lori Hacking's mother, Thelma Soares,
said Wednesday, "I have absolutely no comment. We have absolutely no
knowledge as to what is going to happen Friday. It's a wait-and-see."
Hacking's defense attorney, Gilbert Athay, did not return a
telephone call.
Charles, 20, is charged with first-degree murder for the March 27,
2004, shooting death of 18-year-old Carlos Ortiz, who was gunned down on the
porch of his grandmother's Salt Lake City home.
Kris Baker
"tiny dancer" <tinyd...@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:eZP7e.66115$f%4.1...@bignews1.bellsouth.net...
> Hacking deal looks likely
> By Stephen Hunt
> The Salt Lake Tribune
>
Today's news:
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2662445
I guess I'm the only one who's surprised....but there's really
no sense in this having gone on this long (and the Soares family
agrees).
Article Last Updated: 4/15/2005 02:11 AM
Guilty plea by Hacking likely today
The plan all along? All signs indicate neither side ever intended to
go to trial
By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Expect no gasps of surprise if Mark Hacking pleads guilty today. It
appears that he has never intended to do anything otherwise.
Witnesses pivotal to the prosecution's case were never contacted by
defense investigators - a fundamental first step in establishing a trial
defense in any case, let alone one in which the defendant faces life
imprisonment.
And, apparently content that Hacking would not put up a fight,
prosecutors have not kept tabs on witnesses either.
"No one has called us since early last fall," said Lisa Downs,
co-owner of the furniture store where Hacking arrived to purchase a new
mattress on July 19 - the morning he was calling friends and police to
report his wife missing.
One witness, who has since left the state, offered to give
investigators a new address and phone number, but claims to never have been
contacted in response.
That, observers close to the case say, is a good indication that
Hacking has always intended to plea guilty.
If that is Hacking's resolution, it's one his father believes began
shortly after he was jailed on suspicion of shooting his wife, Lori, as she
slept and placing her body in a Dumpster near the hospital where he worked.
After speaking to his jailed son in September, Douglas Hacking said
Mark was "determined to do what is right - even if it costs him his life."
Mark doesn't face the death penalty, as some family members
initially thought he might. But Lori's brother says punishment should not
factor into Mark's decision anyway.
"If he really is accepting responsibility, then that's great -
that's one step on the path he needs to take," Paul Soares told The Tribune
Thursday, taking a moment away from dinner with family and friends at an
Orem restaurant.
Soares, who lives in Los Angeles, said he has not been told for
sure that Mark will plead guilty today, "but it doesn't take a brain
surgeon," he said. "He's not preparing for trial."
He noted that both his mother and father were planning to be in the
courtroom today. He lamented that they didn't hear Mark admit guilt in
October, the last time they were all in court together.
"I would have had a lot more respect if he had done it back then,"
Soares said.
That hearing came shortly after Hacking attorney Gil Athay claimed
to be pursuing numerous "possible defenses." Since then, however, Athay has
failed to file any trial-related motions or submit questions to be answered
by potential jurors in a case that prompted bold local newspaper headlines
and attracted national TV coverage for weeks as Mark's lies about his past
and future plans came to light.
Mark's family said the lying finally came to an end when Mark
confessed to his brothers that he had killed his wife.
Though investigators took evidence from Mark's locker at the
University Neuropsychiatric Institute and interviewed several of his
co-workers, his supervisor - named as a witness in the murder charges - has
not been contacted by the defense.
Mary Talboys said no one from the prosecution has called her,
either. "Not at all," she said.
Athay and prosecutor Bob Stott are keeping quiet on the details of
today's hearing.
Greg Skordas, a former prosecutor who now frequently defends
high-profile clients in Utah, said the absence of any such action on Athay's
part is a good indication that Mark will plead guilty.
"If the witnesses have not been contacted yet, there's a reason for
that, and that is that they won't be called at all," Skordas said.
The police officers who would be paramount to the prosecution's
case do not appear to be gearing up for trial, either.
At least nine officers involved in the investigation of Lori
Hacking's murder were named on the same probable cause statement as Talboys.
But Salt Lake City police spokesman Dwayne Baird said he's heard nothing
about any officers preparing to testify in the high-profile case.
"They might get a subpoena in the morning for that afternoon,"
Baird said. "That's not necessarily a safe thing to do."
And though he's testified in many cases, Baird said he couldn't
remember a time in his career in which that had ever happened to him.
Further, Baird said, it isn't easy to find people at the last
moment. "People aren't nailed to floor of their house," he said.
Baird said witnesses and police officers would be necessary to make
the case. "They're not going to put him away on public opinion," he said.
But Sione Palauni, also named as a witness in the probable cause
statement, says no one has contacted him in preparation for trial.
That leaves only one likely outcome. And many expect it to occur
at 2 p.m. today in the Matheson County Courthouse: A change of plea to
guilty.