SAN DIEGO : Court Bars Seeking a Stiffer Sentence
San Diego County prosecutors may not seek a sentence of life without parole for Robert Earl Mack, accused of murdering one official and wounding another last January at a General Dynamics plant, a state appellate court ruled Monday.
In a brief order, the 4th District Court of Appeal let stand San Diego Superior Court Judge Terry O’Rourke’s May 27 ruling upholding the charge of murder but dismissing the allegation that the shootings were committed with the special circumstance of “lying in wait.”
That allegation, if proven, could lead only to a sentence of life without parole, since prosecutors have announced that they will not seek the death penalty. Mack, 44, charged with murder and attempted murder in the Jan. 24 shootings at the General Dynamics Convair Division plant near Lindbergh Field, is scheduled to go on trial June 24.
Michael Konz, 25, a labor negotiator, died of a gunshot wound in the back of the head. Supervisor James English, 52, was also shot in the head but survived.
Mack has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The shootings occurred after a grievance hearing, at which Mack sought reinstatement to his job on an assembly line. He had been fired Jan. 15.
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