Reporting from Fort Bragg, Calif. — Twenty days before his planned storybook wedding in Yosemite National Park, Aaron Vargas got drunk on beer and vodka and pocketed a loaded revolver. Then he drove to a remote trailer and shot Darrell McNeill to death in front of the man's horrified wife. McNeill's death shocked residents of this small city on the rugged Northern California coast, and so did Vargas' motive. But what came next might have been the biggest surprise of all. Assistant Dist. Atty. Elizabeth Norman describes McNeill, who was unarmed when he was killed, as "a little old man...
