[mabelkitty]

He's going to snap.
I don't think this will see a jury trial.
He'll either confess or kill himself.
With Scott, it's all about him and his ego.
I don't get that with MH.
He's hiding something. Another secret life?
Or maybe I'm just looking too closely to try and figure out a motive.....

[Bonaparte]

"He's hiding something."

Oh, I agree, mabelkitty! I think he will always be hiding something. I think he was born this way. I think he started out life defective and got worse and worse until he became a homicidal maniac. Whether he goes to prison or not, I think he will only get worse. I think the only cure for him is execution.

"Another secret life?"

Definitely a secret life! He had to be doing something, somewhere with somebody all that time he said he was in school and wasn't. And I'd bet whatever he was doing wasn't worth bragging about either.

"...maybe I'm just looking too closely to try and figure out a motive..."

I don't blame you for looking closely. The motive we've all been looking at is, essentially, vanity and fear of humiliation. Most people will do a lot of things to avoid humiliating exposure, but murder? Most of us stop short of that, even if it means taking considerable embarassment. Since that, IMO, would include most jurors, I think the element of motive is the weakest of the "big 3." IMO, if the prosecution goes with this motive, they should do whatever they can to demonstrate that Mark Hacking is a freak, not somebody normal at all.