Prosecutors Say Mack Regularly Used Cocaine

Robert Earl Mack was under the influence of cocaine during his alleged shooting rampage at a General Dynamics plant in January, according to evidence prosecutors plan to present at Mack’s retrial beginning this week.

Superior Court Judge Richard Murphy gave tentative approval Monday that will allow prosecutors to present expert testimony that Mack had a “cocaine derivative” in his bloodstream when he was arrested hours after the shooting at the plant near Lindbergh Field.

However, Murphy ruled against a plan to call another expert who would have testified that the Jan. 24 shootings were the culmination of a months-long cocaine addiction that cost Mack his job at the plant, which manufactured the Advanced cruise missile.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Julie Whitaker told Murphy the expert would testify that Mack “was a (cocaine) user on a regular basis, probably an addict.”

The cocaine found in his system, coupled with several months of strange behavior and severe monetary problems, show that Mack had a serious drug problem, Whitaker said.

Defense attorney Michael Roake said the prosecution’s discussion of addiction is a “smear campaign” that is supported by “no evidence at all other than this one small test.”

These two issues are among 27 legal motions to be discussed before opening statements in Mack’s second murder trial.

The 43-year-old San Diego man is charged with murdering labor negotiator Michael Konz, 25. He also faces one count of attempted murder in the shooting of James English, 52, who survived a gunshot in the back of his head.