Slain man was former athlete

By Timothy Hurley and Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writers

WAILUKU, Maui — Former Chaminade basketball player Mark Wells was remembered yesterday as an "awesome" point guard whose playmaking abilities were matched only by his likeable personality and gift for gab.

Wells

Police yesterday identified Wells, 44, as the homeless man whose body was found on a remote Kahakuloa hiking trail Saturday with multiple gunshot wounds to the head.

Wells, the starting point guard on the 1982 Chaminade team that knocked off No. 1 Virginia in a game some regard as the greatest upset in college basketball history, was described by former teammates and friends as a good person who took a wrong turn. Court records indicate he got into trouble with the law in Hawai'i and Texas.

Lopes, who lives on the Big Island, said he last talked to Wells about a year ago after hearing his former player had come under the influence of some "shady guys."

"He told me he could handle it," Lopes said. "He told me, 'I'm a survivor.' I said, 'Not with these guys,' and he just said, 'I'm a survivor.' "

Police said Wells was arrested Thursday for allegedly providing alcohol to a teenager and then sexually assaulting her. He was arrested on suspicion of first-degree sexual assault and released while detectives investigated.

Two days later, hikers found his body about 100 yards into a trail leading to a lava outcropping known as Olivine Pools. An autopsy conducted Sunday found that he was shot six times and had been dead 12 to 36 hours before he was found.

Maui police yesterday did not respond to requests for additional information on the shooting.

Lopes first saw Wells play basketball in Venice Beach, Calif. He persuaded the Santa Monica Junior College player to come to Chaminade.

"He was an awesome player, a roadrunner. He loved the game and he was a people person, with a personality that could not be beat," he said.

But that personality was ultimately used "in the wrong way," Lopes said.

Honolulu court records show that Wells got in trouble not long after graduating from Chaminade with a degree in business administration.

He pleaded guilty to first-degree theft in 1984 for stealing clothing from Sears, where he had been an undercover security officer, according to Circuit Court records.

He did not dispute the theft and later received a deferred acceptance of his guilty plea. In a letter of support for Wells, one of his professors wrote glowingly of the former athlete's achievements.

Professor Dean E. Hutter told the court that Wells had volunteered to help organize sports activities and counsel troubled teenagers.

"In all these achievements and their consequent translation into the public image, Mr. Wells remained a quiet, dignified, non-prima donna gentleman who has earned the affection and respect of peers and other associates alike," Hutter wrote.

A recent Chaminade alumni newsletter quoted Wells as saying he worked in real estate investment and with a jazz studio in Houston and that he was the father of two children.

Texas court files indicate Wells pleaded guilty in 1999 to manufacturing or distributing less than a gram of a controlled substance, and he was sentenced in a Houston court to the minimum term of 180 days in jail.

When the Chaminade team that beat Virginia gathered for a reunion on Maui in November 2002, teammates wondered what Wells had been doing. He seemed a mystery, said Mark Rodrigues, a teammate who now lives in Tustin, Calif.

"When we got together, everyone was doing well and it seemed like Mark was struggling along," said Rodrigues, a manager for a Japanese chemical company. "We never knew what he did for a living. We didn't know what he was doing. It seemed like his life wasn't going as smoothly as some of the others. It was a little disappointing."

Some of the players hinted at "a major drug problem," said former teammate Richard Haenisch, a stockbroker from Los Angeles. "It was not visible to me," Haenisch said. "I didn't see anything that way."

When Wells failed to show up for functions, including a halftime introduction at a Maui Invitational basketball game, his friends were confused.

"I would ask, 'Where is Mark?' at certain functions and people said, 'Man, he has been going through some rough times and maybe he is still partying and being addicted to whatever he was addicted to,' " Haenisch said.

Lopes said Wells once took a van his former coach had rented and didn't return it until two days later. Lopes said he reported the theft to police. But when Wells returned with the smashed-up vehicle, the coach not only dropped the charges but had his own insurance pay for the damage.

"He was such a likable guy. I couldn't say no," he said.

Wells decided not to return to Houston and instead remained on Maui after the 2002 reunion. At the time of his death, he was living in a homeless camp behind the Lahaina Aquatic Center.

Rodrigues said news of the way Wells died — and the crime he was accused of just before his death — is disturbing.

"When you see multiple gunshot wounds, someone was angry," Rodrigues said. "Hawai'i is a small place and Maui is even smaller. I am sure they will find out who did this."

He added: "Deep down, he was a good guy. It sounds cliche, but you had to be a teammate to know he was a really good guy. Unfortunately, he took a couple of bad turns in life."

On Maui, Wells was known to homeless services providers in the Lahaina area, said Victor Bellarosa, founder of Light Bringers, a nonprofit Christian outreach organization.

Wells had been a regular at the outreach organization for a year and a half and stood out because he was always clean-shaven and "slicker than most of them," Bellarosa said.

"I didn't know him that well but he was a quiet fellow," Bellarosa said. "He seemed sharp. He never gave me any trouble."

Reach Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880. Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.