Prosecutors ask to have bail for Mark ruled out
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By David Waite and Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writers
Although the man charged with fatally shooting a police officer Tuesday in Kapolei is being held in lieu of $7 million cash bail, city prosecutors yesterday filed a request that no bail be allowed for Shane Mark while he awaits first-degree murder and other charges.
In his request, city Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Van Marter said Mark falls under the state law allowing defendants to be held without bail if it can be shown that they are a flight risk, may try to intimidate witnesses, pose a danger to the community or will engage in further criminal activity.
"Based on the nature of the (current) charges, the potential penalty involved and the defendant's prior felony convictions, there appears to be no condition or combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the safety of the community or defendant's appearance when required," Van Marter said.
No date has been set for a hearing on Van Marter's request.
Mark, 28, is accused of fatally shooting police officer Glen Gaspar, 40, at the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor at the Kapolei Shopping Center while Gaspar and other officers were attempting to arrest him. Mark was wanted for an attempted-murder case stemming from a prior shooting.
He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday morning in Circuit Court.
State Deputy Public Defender Dean Yamashiro said that Mark is expected to remain at O'ahu Community Correctional Center and that Mark and his lawyer will appear in court via video conference connection.
Yamashiro said it is unclear whether Mark will be represented by a public defender or by private attorney Myles Breiner, who said Thursday morning that he had been contacted by Mark's family about possibly representing him. Breiner could not be reached yesterday to comment.
In a related development, Deputy Public Defender Todd Eddins took issue yesterday with a statement Van Marter made Thursday that Mark might still have been in prison when Gaspar was shot if a state judge had granted a prosecution request in 1998 to sentence Mark to 10 years instead of five on auto theft and burglary charges.
Eddins said it was the prosecutors who entered into a plea agreement in December 1997 that paved the way for Mark to be sentenced to the shorter term. If the case were to have gone to trial and Mark were convicted, he would have been been sentenced outright to 10-year prison term as a repeat offender, according to Eddins.
Jim Fulton, spokesman for the prosecuting attorney's office, said the prosecution agreed to the plea agreement because the owner of the house that was burglarized was a Canadian citizen who indicated it would be difficult for him to appear at trial. The Hawai'i residence was a vacation home for the owner, he said.
Fulton noted that despite entering into the plea agreement with Mark, prosecutors continued to argue for an extended sentence of 10 years. But Eddins said the sentencing judge noted that the prosecutors entered a plea agreement to the reduced charges that normally carry a five-year term.
"The court then felt it was contradictory for the prosecution to seek a 10-year term for a five-year offense," Eddins said.
