Mack Jury Encounters ‘Little Shrines’ to Slain Employee : Trial: Field trip to site where employee was gunned down ends abruptly when plaques, signs, pictures and flowers in his memory are discovered. But judge rules that trial has not been compromised and can continue.

The murder trial of Robert Earl Mack was disrupted Wednesday when lawyers in the case discovered a slew of what one called “little shrines” to a slain General Dynamics Convair Division labor negotiator during a field trip to show the jury the Lindbergh Field plant.

Dotting the offices where Michael Konz used to work were pictures, signs, plaques and flowers in memory of the 25-year-old victim. A desk calendar was even opened to last Jan. 24, the day Mack opened fire at the plant, killing Konz and wounding another man, an attack that came moments after the end of a hearing on the company’s decision to fire Mack.

Mack’s court-appointed lawyer, J. Michael Roake, called the display the “most heavy-handed thing I’ve ever seen in my life” and asked for a mistrial. San Diego Superior Court Judge Richard M. Murphy said it was “inappropriate behavior by General Dynamics employees,” but ruled that the trial would continue since all 12 jurors told him they could still be fair.

Mack, 43, is charged with the murder of Konz and the attempted murder of James T. English, 52. English was Mack’s immediate supervisor.

Mack has pleaded not guilty to the charges. When the trial began Tuesday, Roake conceded that Mack fired the shots that killed Konz and wounded English. But, Roake said, Mack planned only to kill himself, intending a “suicide ritual” to protest being laid off from the company where he had worked for 24 years.

Instead of killing himself, Mack “snapped,” blacked out and remembers nothing about shooting Konz and English, Roake said.

If convicted, Mack faces from 34 years to life in prison.

The trip to the Lindbergh Field plant where the shootings occurred was designed to show the jury the layout of the hallways, offices and and patios where Mack shot the two men.

It marked Mack’s first trip back to the site since last Jan. 24. Escorted by his lawyer and county marshals, and sporting a yellow-and-black visitor’s badge, Mack was recognized by several workers at the plant, who waved and yelled greetings to him.

But, after less than a minute in Convair’s Building 16, as lawyers and Murphy trooped through a hallway just a few paces ahead of jurors, Roake stopped suddenly and asked the judge to show the jury out.

Lining desks in the open hallway were pictures of Konz, Roake said. One of the pictures was inscribed, “Michael, We Miss You, We Love You.”

Elsewhere in the building the lawyers and the judge found cards to Konz, poems about him and two fresh bouquets of flowers.

On one wall hung two plaques of sympathy from the Elgar Corp., the Miramar electronics firm where former employee Larry Hansel shot and killed two bosses in June, 1991.

And, in Konz’s office, on his desk, the calendar had been opened to Jan. 24, 1992, Roake said.

Jurors were unlikely to have seen anything more than three or four photos of Konz, Roake said.

“We were fortunate to catch it quickly enough,” Roake said. Referring to Convair, he said, “But I don’t know why they feel the need to poison the atmosphere about this.”

He added, “There were all these little shrines to Mr. Konz. The flowers were fresh. They had to have been put there by General Dynamics immediately before (the jury visit).”

Prosecutor Sickels said he was “shocked as defense counsel” about the display.

T Julie Andrews, a General Dynamics spokeswoman, said it remained unclear who put the flowers, signs and plaques up for the jury to see. “I can only assume it was co-workers, the people who work in that building,” she said.

Andrews declined further comment. General Dynamics issued a statement saying it is “cooperating with the legal system in this matter to ensure a fair trial. The company believes that the justice system must be allowed to take its course, and we will neither say nor do anything to impede the process.”

When the jury got back to court Wednesday, testimony resumed with Convair human resources director John L. Sullivan on the stand. He talked about various attendance policies set forth in the company personnel manual.

Mack was notified Jan. 18, six days before the attack, that he was being fired. The company claimed he had been late to work too often.