Mark faces a life term with parole when he is sentenced Aug. 2 for Gaspar's murder. If convicted of attempting to murder Sung, Mark would face a mandatory life term without possibility of parole, the state's harshest sentence.

The retrial is expected to be similar to the first trial in December last year.

In his opening statements yesterday, Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Van Marter used a visual presentation as he did in the earlier trial in describing Mark's "paranoid" behavior at the Kapolei Baskin-Robbins.

Van Marter said the two plainclothes officers had pulled up their shirts to display their badges, but that Mark realized he was cornered and "tried literally to shoot his way out of the arrest rather than be arrested."

Mark allegedly curled his arm and pointed the gun within 10 inches of Sung's face after having fired three shots at Gaspar during a struggle with the officers.

Deputy Public Defender Debra Loy, however, told the jury that Mark had been on the run since a shooting in Moanalua about a month earlier and was fearful for his safety and that of his then-pregnant girlfriend.

Mark did not know Gaspar and Sung were police officers and believed he was in a fight-or-die situation, Loy said.

"He believed those men were there to get him," Loy told jurors yesterday. " ... He had every reason to be afraid."

Loy said that Mark was struggling to break free from the grasp of the officers when the gun was pointed at Sung.

Sung was not shot.

The jury in the first trial had rejected a first-degree murder conviction and convicted Mark of the lesser offense of second-degree murder. The first-degree murder charge was for killing a police officer, but Mark contended he did not know Gaspar and Sung were police officers.

Mark is also on trial on two other charges from the first trial that the jury could not agree on. He is charged with attempted murder and a firearms offense in connection with the Moanalua shooting incident Feb. 1.