Deliberations Begin Today in Murder Trial of Mack : Justice: Fired General Dynamics worker claims he was ‘unconscious’ during shootings. Prosecution says he hunted down victims.

A jury will begin deliberations this morning in the trial of Robert Earl Mack, the fired General Dynamics worker who is charged with shooting two company officials, killing one and critically wounding the other after a grievance hearing at which he was attempting to win back his job.

Mack’s version of the incident is that he had intended to commit a ritualistic suicide designed to send a message to company officials, but that he blacked out once there. The plan went awry and led to the death of one man and permanent injuries to another.

In closing arguments Tuesday, the prosecutor portrayed Mack as a disgruntled worker who went after the men he saw as responsible for the loss of his lifelong job at General Dynamics Convair Division.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Sickels methodically outlined Mack’s activities Jan. 24, which culminated in the death of a company labor negotiator, 25-year-old Michael Konz, and the near-fatal shooting of Mack’s former supervisor, 52-year-old James English.

After the grievance hearing, at which Mack was attempting to persuade representatives of the aerospace firm to reinstate him as a worker on the advanced cruise missile assembly line, Mack followed English out of a conference room and shot him in the back of the head, according to several witnesses at the trial.

While Mack testified that he has no recollection of the incident, Sickels insisted that Mack was “hunting down and stalking the intended victims.”

“We know what happened,” Sickels told the jury. “He had the gun, he pointed it at the back of Mr. English’s head and he pulls the trigger. Mr. English falls to the pavement in that doorway” leading from the personnel offices.

Mack then walked through Building 16 at the Lindbergh Field facility looking for Konz, Sickels said.

After finding and chasing Konz out of the building, “he pulls that gun up again and takes aim,” Sickels told the jury. “He fires twice, one of the shots strikes Michael Konz in the back of the head and it goes clear through his head and he goes down.”

Sickels suggested to the jury that Mack lied while on the witness stand last week. Even though Mack testified that he blacked out and had the sensation of riding a big, black cat during the time of the shootings, Sickels pointed out that Mack called his mother and said, “I shot two men--one had a personal vendetta against me and the other fired me . . . what was I supposed to do?”

Mack had the premeditation necessary for a first-degree murder conviction, Sickels said, because he had taken action to fulfill his plan of revenge.

“Unbeknownst to those (preparing for the grievance hearing) at General Dynamics, the defendant in the morning hours went out and, according to his own testimony, spends his last $40 on a fully loaded .38-caliber revolver,” Sickels said.

In a two-hour closing statement, defense attorney Michael Roake asked the jury to acquit his client, saying Mack was “unconscious” during the shooting, a condition that was caused by a minor stroke Mack must have suffered because of the pressure related to the grievance hearing.

Roake listed a number of symptoms described by Mack that he said are consistent with someone having a stroke: hallucinations, tingling sensations, blurred vision, dry mouth, panting and a flash of pain in the head.

The medical condition was triggered when company officials chose to end the grievance hearing before Mack could present his side of the story and then commit suicide, Roake said.

“Mack broke, he snapped, broke like a sea bubble in the sand,” Roake said. “Bizarre.”

Also using the phone call made to his mother to prove a point, Roake stressed that Mack said something had gone wrong; his act therefore lacked the planning necessary for first-degree murder, Roake said.

“It wasn’t supposed to happen that way--there goes premeditation,” he said.

Since Mack had no knowledge of the shootings taking place, Roake told the jury, the prosecution bears the burden of proving that Mack did know what was happening when he shot the two men.

Roake also condemned General Dynamics for the way it had treated blue-collar workers during the recent economic hard times. Using the film “Aliens” as a reference point, Roake said, “Human beings are expendable for the corporation.”

The jury will begin deliberations after Sickels presents a rebuttal to Roake’s closing argument. The panel will have four options to consider in the death of Konz: first-degree murder, second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and not guilty. In the shooting of English, the jury will debate attempted premeditated murder, attempted voluntary manslaughter and not guilty.

Mack could receive a sentence of life in prison if he is convicted.