ABC News
Utah Man Pleads Guilty to Murdering Wife
Utah Man Pleads Guilty to First-Degree Murder of Wife After She Discovered His Lies
Mark Hacking is shown in this police photo released on Aug. 2, 2004. Hacking pleaded guilty Friday to killing his wife Lori last year, shooting her in the head as she slept after she discovered he had been lying about his career plans and their future together. (AP Photo/Salt Lake Police, HO)
By PAUL FOY Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY Apr 15, 2005  A man accused of killing his wife after she found out he lied about getting into medical school pleaded guilty to murder Friday, making a simple declaration to the judge: "I intentionally shot Lori Hacking in the head with a .22 rifle."
Prosecutors say Mark Hacking carried out the attack while his wife slept last July and then threw the body of the 27-year-old woman in a trash bin. Volunteers scouring a landfill found her decomposed remains about three months later.
The victim's father, Eraldo Soares, said hearing Hacking admit guilt in court "was just like a knife going right through my heart. I could not imagine that he could do that to Lori."
Prosecutors said the sentencing range will be from six years to life for Hacking, who appeared in court Friday with his hands cuffed behind his back and with a look of resignation. Prosecutors said they will push for the maximum sentence, and the possibility of Hacking getting the low end of the sentencing range was extremley remote. Sentencing was scheduled for June 6.
"Under this charge, there is no possibility of probation. He will be going to prison," prosecutor Bob Stott said. "He pleaded guilty to murder, and that's what we were looking for. We were looking for the life sentence."
Hacking, a 28-year-old hospital orderly, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. He also was charged with obstructing justice by disposing of the body, the gun and a bloody mattress, but those charges were dropped as part of Friday's deal.
Prosecutors were unable to determine if Lori Hacking was five weeks' pregnant, as she had told friends. That meant the husband could not be charged with a capital crime.
Defense attorney Gil Athay repeated in a Friday interview with Salt Lake television station KUTV his earlier claim that Hacking may have suffered "brain trauma" after a fall from a rooftop.
"He fell in a roofing accident some years ago and suffered some substantial brain trauma," Athay said, adding that he plans to present that evidence at sentencing. "I think it plays heavily in where this case is."
Salt Lake City (Utah) resident and hospital orderly Mark Hacking pleaded guilty Friday to killing his wife Lori, and placing her body in a dumpster.

Mrs. Hacking’s disappearance last summer touched off an intense, weeklong search in Salt Lake County which a wire service report said was similar to the other sensational Salt Lake crime, the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart from her own bedroom.

After Hacking admitted details of his crime to his family, earlier, he suffered a breakdown and was placed in a psychiatric hospital. He was seen in court Friday with his hands cuffed behind his back.

He admitted to the judge that he killed his wife while she slept. His motives, according to prosecutors, were his anger and despondency when she discovered that he was not accepted into a North Carolina medical school as he had claimed, but would remain a hospital orderly.

Mrs. Hacking is reported to have broken down sobbing at her workplace, a Wells Fargo brokerage, after discovering her husband’s deception. She had placed a call to the medical school’s administrators and been told he was not enrolled. He had lied to her about graduating from the University of Utah as well.

Mrs. Hacking’s mother and father were in the courtroom to hear their son-in-law declare: “I intentionally shot Lori Hacking in the head with a .22 rifle.” They said it was like a “knife in the heart” to hear that, but were happy he owned up to the crime.

The attack occurred last July. Volunteers scouring a landfill found her decomposed remains after three months of searching.