Pawnshop owner takes deal

Set to start his defense Monday, Reno pawnshop owner Darren Mack instead abruptly ended his murder trial by accepting a plea deal that calls for a life prison term and gives him the chance to criticize the forces he claims drove him to his crimes.

The 46-year-old one-time multimillionaire was on trial for killing his wife and wounding the couple's divorce judge, Washoe County Family Court Chuck Weller. Mack is expected to use his sentencing in January as a public forum for criticizing the Family Court system.

Mack pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree murder for the June 12, 2006, throat-slashing of 39-year-old Charla Mack, and he entered an Alford plea to attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon for the sniper-style shooting of Weller. An Alford plea does not involve an admission of guilt but acknowledges that prosecutors could prove their case if it went to trial.

"I do understand right now in my state of mind that shooting at the judiciary is not a proper form of political redress," Mack said in Clark County District Judge Douglas Herndon's courtroom.

Mack made an unusual request as part of the plea deal that he be allowed to speak at length during sentencing, where he is expected to focus on Weller, whom he has described as a corrupt, unfair and tyrannical jurist.

"There are some very important things to say, and I've remained quiet through this whole thing," Mack said.

Herndon set aside two days for the sentencing, Jan. 17 and 18, to allow plenty of time for statements, and not just Mack's. Weller is to have an opportunity to talk about the effect of Mack's crimes, and so will Charla Mack's family.

For Mack's plea switch, prosecutors took the maximum sentence he could have received from the jury, life in prison without parole, off the table.

The plea deal calls for Mack to receive 20 years to life in prison for the murder charge. Attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon carries a penalty of 16 to 40 years.

Prosecutors will argue for Herndon to order that Mack serve his sentences consecutively, and defense attorneys will urge Herndon to run them concurrently.

Mack "has hope for release" after 20 years, one of his lawyers, David Chesnoff, said.

Prosecutor Christopher Lalli's hope is for the other end of the spectrum. "He's looking at life plus 40 years," Lalli said, referring to the maximum possible punishment.

Soorya Townley, Charla Mack's 61-year-old mother, said that she was told over the weekend that the plea deal was in the works and that she approved of it.

"I'm glad it's over," she said, explaining that she was relieved that she would not have to listen to defense attorneys resume "dragging my daughter's name through the mud."

"On the other hand," she added, "I was hoping he could have gotten life without the possibility of parole."

"All I could see in my mind was how my daughter was slaughtered like an animal," Townley said.

The Macks' 9-year-old daughter, who was upstairs at her father's Reno townhouse watching TV when the killing occurred in the garage, is in the care of family and friends, Townley said. Mack's family and Townley are battling over permanent custody of her.

Chesnoff and Mack's other defense attorney, Scott Freeman, said that Mack took the deal because he did not want to disparage Charla Mack's reputation and that he wanted to take responsibility for the crimes.

In opening statements Oct. 24, the defense lawyers told jurors they would show them evidence that Charla Mack was sexually promiscuous and went to Mack's house the day of the slaying to try to threaten him into dropping an appeal of the couple's divorce settlement. She pushed him, prompting the physical fight between the two that ended with Mack stabbing her, Freeman told the jury.

After killing his estranged wife, Mack, in a fit of insanity, took a .243-caliber rifle to a parking garage across from the courthouse and shot Weller through the window of his office, Chesnoff told the jury.

After they were dismissed Monday, 11 jurors said they thought overwhelming evidence existed that Mack methodically plotted his crimes.

"It would have been a tough, tough job for them to prove that yes, he was insane for that period of time" when he shot Weller, said juror Ryan Murdy, 34, of Henderson.

Mack's obsession with what he perceived as the injustice of Family Court and his desire to change it by force -- even calling for armed revolution against the system -- did make him seem a bit crazy, but it did not convince jurors that he was so insane as to not know right from wrong.

Lalli and co-prosecutor Robert Daskas said they agreed to the plea bargain because it accomplished their goals to secure first-degree murder and attempted murder convictions.

A Clark County death penalty review committee had evaluated the case and declined to pursue execution as the maximum sentence, Lalli said. He said he could not comment about the committee's decision.

Mack's lawyers told the court that he entered the Alford plea to the attempted murder charge to receive the benefits of the plea bargain and that he could not plead guilty because he did not intend to kill the judge.

But Lalli said the prosecutors will try to convince Herndon at sentencing that they had sufficient evidence of Mack's intent.

"When you fire a round at someone from that distance (515 feet) with that powerful of a gun, the only intention would be to kill," he said.

Mack will have unlimited time to speak at his sentencing, during which prosecutors will not be able to question him.

"Mr. Mack wants to express his views on the entire situation unfettered by attacks on him ... that would have happened if and when he would have testified," Chesnoff said.

"He's going to talk about Chuck Weller, not because there's animosity toward Judge Weller, but about how the Family Court process should be more sensitive to the emotional and personal problems in Family Court," Chesnoff said.

The defense has portrayed Mack as a delusional victim of Weller's oppressive court, where the judge never once sided with him. The judge was disparaged by Mack, in a videotaped interview shown to the jury, and by Mack's friends, who testified during the trial, as biased in favor of attorneys who donate to his campaign.

Weller, 55, testified that he had ruled in Mack's favor in granting the couple joint custody of their daughter and that Mack's divorce lawyer had donated more to his campaign than his wife's attorney.

After Mack's plea, Weller and his lawyer, the nationally known Gloria Allred, had a brief news conference on the courthouse steps.

"This dark night is over or at least a portion of this dark night is over," Weller said.

He refused to answer questions.

Allred said Weller has suffered the "worst assault that a judge can imagine" and has had to suffer continual attacks on his character and reputation by Mack.

She called him an "American hero."

But the jurors did not see him that way.

Under cross-examination by Chesnoff on the witness stand, "Judge Weller's true colors" came out, Murdy said.

"You could definitely see how he would run his court," Murdy said. "They proved that yeah, he could be a tyrant when he's in a room and he's in complete control."

"It was his demeanor more than anything," said another man who served on the jury. "His head needs to be deflated."

"We're saying Weller is a jerk," added Suzanne Lantz, 50, of Las Vegas, as other jurors nodded their heads in agreement.

"But," Lantz added, "that doesn't justify Darren's behavior."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact reporter K.C. Howard at khoward@reviewjournal.com or (702) 380-1039.