Expert Witness Blog
Darren Mack has pled guilty to the stabbing death of his estranged wife, Charla, on June 12, 2006. He agreed to an Alford plea concerning the intent-to-kill portion of the attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon in the sniper shooting of his divorce judge. Victor Ruvalcaba, a forensics and laboratory expert witness with the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, said that the bullet cut into the skin and clothing of Family Court Judge Chuck Weller and his secretary after traveling 515 feet from a downtown Reno parking garage and through a courthouse window. The expert witness is a forensic investigator with the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office. Prosecutors had offered testimony from crime scene investigators Wednesday and a pilot who said he saw Mack in Mexico after the crimes. The Reno Gazette Journal reports:
“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.