Hacking's Attorney to Challenge Confession

AP via Yahoo ^ | August 6, 2004 | PAUL FOY

[MizSterious]

Hacking's Attorney to Challenge Confession

1 hour, 57 minutes ago

By PAUL FOY, Associated Press Writer

SALT LAKE CITY - The attorney for Mark Hacking said he will raise the issue of mental illness and challenge his client's confession to relatives that he killed his wife, Lori, and dumped her body in a garbage bin.

Hacking, 28, reportedly made the statement to his brothers when he was a psychiatric patient in the hospital, said defense lawyer Gil Athay.

"To me that creates a substantial issue," Athay told Salt Lake television station KUTV Thursday. "Mental illness, mental deficiency certainly will be an issue in this case."

Hacking reported his wife missing on July 19, a Monday. He said she had gone jogging and never showed up for work. Early the next morning, police found him naked outside a hotel and he was taken to the psychiatric ward.

Scott and Lance Hacking talked with their younger brother at the hospital July 24. They said he told them he had killed his wife while she was sleeping.

The brothers said they passed the information along to police through an intermediary.

For years, Mark Hacking allegedly lied to his wife, family and friends about his education and career plans. Not only wasn't he enrolled at medical school, he hadn't even graduated from the University of Utah. Yet, he and his wife were packing for the move to Chapel Hill, N.C., where she had presumed he was beginning at the medical program.

The Friday before she was reported missing, Lori Hacking, 27, left work stunned and sobbing. Her co-workers told The Associated Press she had been making some arrangements at the North Carolina medical school, and they believe an administrator was calling back to say Mark Hacking wasn't enrolled there.

"I think it's clear that this whole house of cards he had built, all this deception, had come to an end," the man's father, Douglas Hacking, told the AP. "He had been found out. His wife discovered his deception and confronted him with it, and I just think he just saw his whole world collapsing and broke down."

"He just snapped, and did something there's no explanation for. That's the only way I can envision it," he said.

Douglas and Scott Hacking are physicians, and Lance Hacking is an electronics engineer. Douglas Hacking said he believed Mark probably felt pressured by his family's achievements.

Mark Hacking was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Monday when officers learned that he was about to be released from the hospital. Thursday was the deadline for District Attorney David Yocom to file charges in the case, but a judge gave him an extension until Monday.

Police have been plowing through the area of the county landfill where garbage collected from about the time of Lori's disappearance had been deposited. The trash was compacted between loads. It's 20 feet deep over an area of two football fields and weighs about 3,000 tons.

A backhoe digs out a chunk of the trash, which is then spread out and cadaver dogs go over it. The work is done during the cooler night hours for the benefit of the dogs, who are working in difficult circumstances as they are assaulted by so many strong odors. The searches have been interrupted for days at a time to give the dogs a break, or because they are needed on other assignments around the state.

[lady lawyer]

You're right. It doesn't matter who is paying the bills, the lawyer has to advocate for his client, even if that means going against the interests of the person paying the bills. He can't advise Mark to plead out in order to avoid throwing Dad's money down a rathole.

Mark's father loves Mark. But he needs to take a cold hard look at the fact that Mark is willing to destroy even those who love Mark unselfishly. Mark has apparently been a liar who puts his own pleasure before principle for a long, long time. Mark's done enough damage to that family. He shouldn't be permitted to drain their financial resources.

Mark's family should "support" Mark by continuing to express their love for him, and supporting him in doing what is right. But they shouldn't feel obligated to pay for a lying defense.

It's easy for me to say that. But I know from experience that when a child you love screws up, a parent's instinct is to look back and remember all the sweet, good traits that that child has, and to believe in the possibility that the child can be brought around if you don't give up. And they usually can be. I know that from experience, too.

But there are screwups, and screwups. I can't claim experiences anything near what the Hackings are enduring now.

The poor Hackings.

[lady lawyer]

I think you're right about the pre-planning. I'll bet he had some "accident" planned when he went to North Carolina. Then he could pretend to "withdraw" from medical school, and that would be the end of that.

Lori stumbled on the truth a few weeks too early.

[Lori675]

The attorney for Mark Hacking gives lawyers the bad name they have. The guy is obviously guilty. Does he want this murderer back on the street.

[lady lawyer]

That's why I will never do criminal law. Ethically, you have to mount the best defense you can. It's a dirty job.

[the Deejay]

The dad needs to pull the plug on funding the lawyer, before his sociopathic son ruins him financially, not just emotionally.

Exactly!

The Hackings need to face reality and fast! Before that attorney gets into their bank accounts.

[the Deejay]

My guess is, Mark had been thinking about what to do to cover his lies and Lori finding out, what she said she was going to do, i.e., leave him, expose him, etc. All of which Mark wasn't going to be able to live with.

I do think he decided the best/easiest way to kill her and he followed through with the plan. Cold blooded.

[Lori675]

Police believe Lori Hacking's remains will turn up in a municipal landfill, where they planned to return Thursday night with a team of cadaver dogs.

It could take a month for police and dogs to plow through 3,000 tons of compacted garbage buried 20-feet deep over an area of two football fields.

[twigs]

I'll bet he had some "accident" planned when he went to North Carolina.

But wasn't Mark planning to go on ahead of Lori by several weeks? I read that in one account. It seems to me that he planned to "go on ahead to NC" and instead of waiting there for Lori to appear, just disappear. It would have been easy. But she found out the truth. And confronted him. And he killed her.

[lady lawyer]

I don't think he planned to disappear. I think the whole reason for the murder is that he wasn't willing to give up his position as a beloved son in a warm, close family. Getting rid of Lori somehow would make him a victim, instead of a lying loser. He could pretend to be so broken up over the loss of his wife that he couldn't go to medical school.

[MizSterious]

Looks like the DA got the time he needed:

---

More Time for Charges in Hacking Case

United Press International

A Utah judge Thursday granted prosecutors additional time to file charges in the disappearance and presumed death of Lori Hacking.

KSL-TV, Salt Lake City, said Judge Anthony Quinn agreed to give prosecutors until Monday evening to formally charge the missing woman's husband in the case.

Mark Hacking was arrested this week on suspicion of murder in his wife's July 19 disappearance. Authorities have not yet lodged any formal charges against Hacking and told Quinn they were still reviewing evidence.

The Salt Lake Tribiune said Thursday Hacking's brothers told police the suspect had admitted to them he killed his wife while she slept and disposed of her body in a dumpster.

Police continue searching for Mrs. Hacking's body in a county landfill.

Meanwhile, Mark Hacking has told the Salt Lake County Sheriff's office he used the alias Jonathan Long when he was admitted to the psychiatric unit of the University of Utah hospital July 21. His attorney, Gil Athay, said the alias was used to avoid media attention.

[MizSterious]

That has always been my theory--that one of the reasons he'd kill Lori would be to stop her from telling his family. I think he was arrogant enough to think he could continue fooling her even after moving to NC (or was it SC?). When he couldn't, she had to be silenced.

[twigs]

A very interesting angle. You could well be right!

[MizSterious]

We really can't even be sure he told his brothers the truth about how and where he disposed of her body. His weasely little mind no doubt was still in self-preservation mode. He has to know that without a body, it will be harder to prove he did it.

[the Deejay]

LE has enough to go to trial with. Her blood on the knife in the apt. No doubt her blood on the carpet. The headboard of the bed. Her blood in her car. I think someone said it's also on the steering wheel as well as on the side panel.

No one but Mark could have done this. No one else had access to the apt. or Lor's car. Mark and Lori were the only ones in the apt. on that night. (This has not been disputed by anyone.)

Mark apparently, didn't wash his hands before planting the car or jogging to the store at 1:30 in the A.M.

[lady lawyer]

He didn't jog to the store at 1:30. The store videotape shows him going out to her car. It's likely that either he had just dumped her somewhere, or her body was in the car, and he was about to dump her. But he needed a smoke.

[the Deejay]

Sorry, I use "jogging" as a general term. Walked, rode, ran, etc.

I didn't see her car in the video. Nor did I hear anyone point this out.

If that's the case, then he'd most likely dumped her body in the dumpster behind the apt. complex. He was on his way to plant her car at the park.

He hadn't washed his hands, hence the blood smears/stains inside her car.

[MizSterious]

Attorney For Mark Hacking Says Mental Illness Will Be An Issue

Created: 8/6/2004 10:09:40 AM

Updated: 8/6/2004 10:10:26 AM

By PAUL FOY
Associated Press Writer

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The attorney for Mark Hacking said he will raise the issue of mental illness and challenge his client's confession to relatives that he killed his wife, Lori, and dumped her body in a garbage bin.

Hacking, 28, reportedly made the statement to his brothers when he was a psychiatric patient in the hospital, said defense lawyer Gil Athay.

"To me that creates a substantial issue," Athay told Salt Lake television station KUTV Thursday. "Mental illness, mental deficiency certainly will be an issue in this case."

Hacking reported his wife missing on July 19, a Monday. He said she had gone jogging and never showed up for work. Early the next morning, police found him naked outside a hotel and he was taken to the psychiatric ward.

Scott and Lance Hacking talked with their younger brother at the hospital July 24. They said he told them he had killed his wife while she was sleeping.

The brothers said they passed the information along to police through an intermediary.

For years, Mark Hacking allegedly lied to his wife, family and friends about his education and career plans. Not only wasn't he enrolled at medical school, he hadn't even graduated from the University of Utah. Yet, he and his wife were packing for the move to Chapel Hill, N.C., where she had presumed he was beginning at the medical program.

The Friday before she was reported missing, Lori Hacking, 27, left work stunned and sobbing. Her co-workers told The Associated Press she had been making some arrangements at the North Carolina medical school, and they believe an administrator was calling back to say Mark Hacking wasn't enrolled there.

"I think it's clear that this whole house of cards he had built, all this deception, had come to an end," the man's father, Douglas Hacking, told the AP. "He had been found out. His wife discovered his deception and confronted him with it, and I just think he just saw his whole world collapsing and broke down."

"He just snapped, and did something there's no explanation for. That's the only way I can envision it," he said.

Douglas and Scott Hacking are physicians, and Lance Hacking is an electronics engineer. Douglas Hacking said he believed Mark probably felt pressured by his family's achievements.

Mark Hacking was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Monday when officers learned that he was about to be released from the hospital. Thursday was the deadline for District Attorney David Yocom to file charges in the case, but a judge gave him an extension until Monday.

Police have been plowing through the area of the county landfill where garbage collected from about the time of Lori's disappearance had been deposited. The trash was compacted between loads. It's 20 feet deep over an area of two football fields and weighs about 3,000 tons.

A backhoe digs out a chunk of the trash, which is then spread out and cadaver dogs go over it. The work is done during the cooler night hours for the benefit of the dogs, who are working in difficult circumstances as they are assaulted by so many strong odors. The searches have been interrupted for days at a time to give the dogs a break, or because they are needed on other assignments around the state.

Source

[MizSterious]

And then there's this interesting article posted on another thread: Mark Hacking - will help investigators. All of this is enough to give you a headache!

[MizSterious]

Ping!

[spectre]

We had to use an "alias" for a family member who was in a rehab. Even the chalk-board on the ward that listed the patients had his fictitious name on it. For all intents and purposes, he was NOT EVEN in that hospital. The staff cooperated fully.

This case is starting to stink. What are we going to hear next? That Mark just made up what he confessed and that he's really innocent?..grrrr.

sw