Mack testifies in attempt to withdraw his plea deal

RENO -- Darren Mack got his chance Thursday to take the witness stand, telling a judge how he felt betrayed and bullied by his former defense lawyers into taking a plea deal to killing his wife and shooting the judge who was handling their divorce.

The 46-year-old former pawnshop owner was calm and animated during his three-hour testimony, using hand gestures and facial expressions while relating how he believed attorneys David Chesnoff and Scott Freeman "psychologically raped" him into taking a deal he didn't understand.

Hints of emotion came twice, when talking about feeling abandoned by Freeman and meeting with his family the morning of Nov. 5 before he pleaded to charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder.

"At that point, I was so broken down that I needed help," he said, momentarily upset.

He described Freeman as his "lifeline" in the months leading up to the trial, and blinked back tears when he said Freeman too, urged him to accept the plea deal.

"That's when I felt my will break," Mack said.

The glimpse of emotion was in contrast to other testimony. He described matter-of-factly how he untangled his dead wife's matted hair from the hammer of a pistol as it lay in a pool of blood, explaining that's how his bloody fingerprint was found in the garage.

Mack, 46, was charged with first-degree murder for the stabbing death of his wife, Charla, in June 2006. From early on, he maintained he acted in self defense.

Authorities said he then drove to a downtown Reno parking garage with a high-powered rifle and shot Family Court Judge Chuck Weller through the window of his third-floor chamber. He initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to that count, but ended up entering the equivalent of a no-contest plea.

A month later, Mack fired his former lawyers and hired Reno attorney William Routsis. He now is seeking to withdraw his earlier pleas and go to trial. He claims his old lawyers pressured him into the plea agreement against his wishes.

But Freeman testified Thursday that was not the case and that he was prepared to complete the trial.

"Chesnoff told him at least five times, if he didn't want to take the deal, he didn't have to," Freeman said.

"We are talking about a situation where we had five days left for trial. If he didn't want to take the deal, we would finish the trial. The witnesses were on their way to Las Vegas from Reno," he said.

Under questioning from Routsis, Mack took his former lawyers to task, saying he begged them to hunt at a landfill for the gun he said misfired when Charla pointed it at him.

When questioned by Special Prosecutor Christopher Lalli, Mack conceded he didn't mention the gun when he first met with his lawyers or talked with others soon after his arrest.

He then revised his statement, saying, "We did not discuss it in detail."

Freeman acknowledged Mack told him about disposing of the gun during a meeting at the jail but said Mack never urged him to try to recover it.

"The word landfill or trying to find the gun had never come up," Freeman said Thursday.

"He told me he got rid of the gun, and they won't find it, by way of putting it in a Dumpster, along with some bloody clothes and the murder weapon, which was a dagger," he said.

Freeman said that, ironically, Mack said the Dumpster was a few blocks from Freeman's law office on the edge of downtown. Freeman said he left the jail and immediately went to locate the Dumpster at the site Mack described.

"There wasn't any Dumpster," he said, adding that concerned him.

"The first concern was that perhaps Mr. Mack was being less than candid with me or alternatively the Dumpster had been moved. So I decided to go with the Dumpster had been moved," he said. He said he didn't look further for the gun or dagger because locating the murder weapon wouldn't necessarily be in Mack's best interest.