Mark Desimone, a former Arizona legislator charged with killing a man on an Alaska hunting and fishing trip in 2016, looks over documents with his attorney Deborah Macaulay during his trial on Thursday, May 10, 2018, in Juneau, Alaska. Macaulay said Thursday the shooting was an accident, not murder. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)
May 10, 2018 - 3:49 PM
JUNEAU, Alaska - An attorney for a former Arizona legislator charged with killing a man on a hunting and fishing trip in Alaska in 2016 told jurors Thursday the shooting was an accident, not murder.
Deborah Macaulay, who represents Mark Desimone, said in closing arguments that the lack of an apparent motive is a significant hole in the case.
"One man does not kill another man for no reason at all and then walk away and say, I accidentally shot that man," she said, adding later: "It doesn't make sense."
If Desimone had some reason to want to hurt Duilio Antonio "Tony" Rosales, why would he do it on a cabin deck, with another member of the hunting and fishing party nearby, Macaulay asked.
Desimone is charged with murder, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of Rosales nearly two years ago at Excursion Inlet, about 40 miles northwest of Juneau.
The case went to the jury Thursday. Desimone sat expressionless during most of day's proceedings.
Desimone resigned from the Arizona House in 2008, during his first term, after being arrested in a domestic dispute with his then-wife. That case was dropped when he agreed to counselling.
Desimone lived in Juneau in the 1980s and returned shortly before the shooting. He was doing day labour at a jewelry store where Rosales worked.
The store was owned by Bill Young, whom Desimone knew from his earlier time in Alaska and who organized the trip.
Assistant District Attorney Amy Paige asked jurors to find Desimone guilty of first-degree murder.
The prosecutor sought to cast doubt on defence testimony that questioned the safety of the gun and the argument that it unintentionally discharged.
She said there was not a gun defect and noted that one witness said Desimone's manner changed from jovial to moody when he found out Rosales was coming on the trip.
She asked jurors to look at the choices Desimone made, including taking from a backpack and holster a gun that had been borrowed from Young by another man.
"He chose to approach the unsuspecting victim, seated, removing his boots," Paige said, adding later: "He chose to position himself close enough that the victim was within inches of the barrel of his gun."
News from © The Associated Press, 2018