Caught In The
Crossfire
Who Is To Blame For A Wife's Death And A Judge's
Shooting?
(CBS) Feb. 24, 2007 - On June 12, 2006, the
people of Reno, Nev., were glued to their
televisions following the brazen shooting of
Family Court Judge Chuck Weller.
"My thoughts
immediately turned towards Charla and her
whereabouts," remembers Ann Mudd, who along with
Christine Libert, desperately tried to reach
their friend Charla Mack.
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The two women were convinced Charla was in danger; their
fears were confirmed when they later heard on the news
their friend had been murdered.
"That was probably the scariest moment in my entire life
just to realize that my beautiful friend wasn't there
any more," Christine remembers.
What led to the shooting of Judge Weller and the murder
of Charla Mack? And was there a connection between the
two cases? Troy Roberts reports on the investigation and
what detectives believe may have led to the violence.
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Darren Mack, a handsome and successful businessman,
married Charla in 1995 in Reno. From the beginning,
everyone says they had a chemistry that was undeniable.
"I think when you saw the two of them walk into a room,
they were explosive together. Charla just fired him up.
She was fire," explains writer Amanda Robb, who reported
on the Mack case for Marie Claire magazine. "They were
high profile in the community they knew everybody.
Everybody knew them."
Amanda and Charla attended the same high school in Reno.
"She wanted to be famous more than anything that really
was her dream…was to be famous," says Robb.
Long before Charla ever met Darren Mack, she pursued her
dream of an acting career. Leaving Reno behind, the
teenager moved to Los Angeles, where she landed two
roles—one in a film with Drew Barrymore, the other in a
documentary with Diane Keaton.
Charla eventually gave up acting and moved back to Reno.
When she started dating Darren Mack, they seemed a
perfect match. Friends say they also shared an interest
in a self-awareness training group called Landmark
Education.
"He was really into self improvement. He liked going to
seminars about improving himself all the time. Achieving
his goals. Which was money, money, money," says writer
Amanda Robb.
Darren Mack is the oldest son of a wealthy and prominent
Reno family; his parents owned one of the largest pawn
shop in the city. When his father was killed in a plane
crash in 1986, Darren became half owner of the family
business and, according to court records, was said to be
worth almost $10 million.
"They lived large. I mean there's no doubt about it. She
drove a Lexus, he drove a Hummer. They had fancy things,
fancy jewelry," says Robb. "It was fabulous."
But Darren Mack had been down the aisle before. Darren
and his ex-wife Debbie had two children together but the
marriage did not end well. "He would not stop fighting
with Debbie. She spent more than a quarter of a million
dollars in legal fees just responding to him," says
Robb, who knows Debbie. "And Charla was on his side at
the time."
Darren had joint custody and for a while at least, he,
Charla, and his kids seemed to be one big happy family.
But their clean cut family image was a far cry from
their private lives. Christine says her friend Charla
was a very sexual person, without sexual inhibitions—
something she shared with Darren.
"They became sort of a fixture on the strip club circuit
in and around Reno," Robb explains. "It moved up into
swinging. They actually went to swinger conventions in
California, Arizona and Mexico where there'd be group
sex parties. They called it 'sexing.'"
But things
changed after their daughter, Erika, was born in
1997.
"Erika had a very normal life with her
mother—movies, play dates, sleepovers, parties.
That was Charla's life, was to make Erika's life
so beautiful and so fulfilled with kid things,"
remembers Charla's friend Ann.
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Charla told Darren she was no longer interested in
swinging. As the marriage began to crumble, letters and
e-mails 48 Hours obtained document an increasingly
abusive relationship.
"I have told you consistently if you didn’t stop
physically and verbally attacking me I would divorce
you," one correspondence read.
But it wasn’t Charla who claimed to be the victim. It
was Darren.
"He kept a diary, in which he said she kicked him in the
testicles, but missed, she scratched his car, she yelled
at him on the phone. Oh, yes. She belittled him in front
of his friends, went on, and on and on for six pages
like this," says Robb.
Darren’s friend Michael Small says that despite his
imposing stature, Darren Mack lived in fear. "He was
very scared of her. I was with him a couple of times
when she called and threatened him."
Small says a big part of Darren's desire to end the
marriage was the alleged abuse. "It’s a known fact that
he carried a gun right here because he was worried she
was gonna come kill him," he tells Roberts.
But Charla was apparently looking over her shoulder,
too. "He showed up at the house where she and Erika were
and they had some kind of confrontation. And he had her
by the neck and was trying to strangle her," says Ann.
In the end, it was Charla who filed for divorce and
Darren moved out. The couple fought constantly over
Erika but fought even more over money, which Darren
claimed was running out.
Family Court Judge Chuck Weller ordered Darren to pay
Charla $10,000 a month until the divorce was settled.
But Darren thought the ruling, and the judge, were
unfair.
Just after 11 a.m. on June 12, 2006, bystanders in
downtown Reno heard a loud bang echo off the buildings.
Detective Ron Chalmers joined hundreds of police
officers to shut down the city, while swat teams fanned
out searching for what they believed was a sniper.
"You're looking up. You're checking buildings. We could
at least narrow down the area the shot came from because
the bullet went through a glass window," Chalmers
remembers.
"People were hiding in different businesses and
restaurants, trying to get people off the street because
they didn’t know if the shooter was still shooting,"
recalls Reno Gazette Journal reporter Martha Bellisle,
who rushed to the scene.
It turned out only one bullet was fired that morning,
exploding through the window of Judge Weller and
spraying him and his assistant with shrapnel.
It was just minutes after the shooting when police got a
break from a phone call.
The caller was Dan Osborne, a childhood friend of Darren
Mack’s, and he had a disturbing story to tell.
Osborne told police he had been at Darren's home that
morning when Charla dropped off their daughter. He and
Erika stayed upstairs while Darren spoke to Charla
privately.
"Downstairs somehow Darren lured Charla into the
garage," says Robb. "The daughter upstairs heard a dog
yelping and told Darren’s friend 'I think your dog is
yelping.'"
After the frantic barking continued, Osborne told police
he went to check on his dog. That’s when he ran into
Darren coming out of the garage. Osborne said Darren
brushed past him with a weird look, his hand wrapped in
a towel, and that he didn’t say a word.
"Few moments later, the dog came in, covered in blood,"
says Det. Chalmers.
"He became incredibly frightened and said to the little
girl 'We have to leave.' They left," Robb explains.
Osborne put Erika in his car and started driving;
minutes later, his cell phone rang. It was Darren.
"And Darren says 'Meet me at Starbucks.' The friend, who
is completely flipped out at this point, meets him at
Starbucks with the little girl," Robb tells Roberts.
Mack took his daughter aside and spoke to her for a few
minutes and then drove off on his own.
"If he thought that maybe Charla had been injured that
morning, why would he allow Darren Mack to see his
little girl?" Roberts asks Chalmers.
"Well I think that Dan Osborne felt that he probably
owed Darren Mack some gratitude. He was an employee for
the Mack family. Whether it's poor judgment or not, he
chose to allow Darren to see his daughter," the
detective replies.
Based on Osborne's story, police rushed to Darren's
condo. "As we looked around the property a little
closer, we found three droplets of blood in the driveway
near the garage door," Chalmers remembers.
Behind that garage door was Charla Mack’s lifeless body.
According to writer Amanda Robb, Charla was found
wearing no shoes or socks and was stabbed seven times.
A search of Darren's condo turned up incriminating
evidence, including a note that on closer inspection
police believed to be a chilling step-by-step guide for
the day's bloody events. The media dubbed it "Darren’s
to-do list."
"It refers to 'ending the problem.' And then, it also
referred to certain weapons that he would need to
fulfill those plans," Chalmers explains.
Police also found a rental contract for a silver Ford
Explorer, and a crucial piece of the puzzle that tied
everything together –the list had the phrase "parking
garage if yes."
Police reviewed surveillance video of the garage across
from Weller's office. At 10:41 a.m., just 20 minutes
before Weller was shot, a silver Ford Explorer was
photographed entering the parking garage.
48 Hours retraced the path police believe the explorer
took that day.
Police believe the shooter's vehicle pulled into the
parking garage, drove up to the fifth floor and backed
in so the rear of the vehicle was facing the justice
center.
We know that the judge was shot at about 11:05 a.m.; the
video surveillance camera shows the Ford Explorer’s rear
hatch being closed at 11:05 and then the vehicle left
the parking garage.
"It would take some skill as a marksmen to shoot that
distance and hit that target," Roberts remarks to Det.
Chalmers.
"It would take some skill," the detective agrees. "But
Darren Mack has an extensive history in hunting."
Within hours, news reports broadcast that Darren Mack
was not only the prime suspect in the Weller shooting
but was also a target in the murder investigation of his
estranged wife, Charla.
But 45-year-old Darren Mack was nowhere to be found.
While Judge Weller was being treated for his wounds at a
local hospital, a nationwide search was underway. Mack
decided to head south.
His cousin, Jeff Donner, even went on television to make
an impassioned plea; Darren had called Donner just
minutes after Judge Weller was shot.
"If Darren is listening, if he’s watching, we love him
and we care about him," he told reporters. "If he is
responsible for this, he snapped, he broke… .. The press
needs to ask what went wrong in that courtroom...that
would make a good loving caring person like this
possibly snap."
That courtroom belonged to Judge Chuck Weller. And what
went wrong—in Darren Mack’s mind—was just about
everything.
"He felt Weller wasn’t listening. He also felt that
Charla’s attorney was lying about everything he was
filing. But Weller was letting him get away with it,"
explains Michael Small, one of Darren's closest friends.
Small and Mack had a lot in common: both men were in the
midst of bitter custody fights. And both men appeared
before Judge Weller. Small says his own experience in
Weller's courtroom sheds light on Darren's intense
frustration.
"I think I understand what he’s going through, inside of
him, better than anyone out there," says Small.
Weller ordered Small to return his son to Florida where
his ex wife lives, an arrangement Small said would put
the child at risk. But a Florida judge had already
rejected that claim.
Judge Weller's hands were tied – he said his court did
not have jurisdiction in this case. When Small missed
the deadline to return the boy, a Florida judge threw
him in jail for 45 days.
The former actor was left to stew about family court in
general and Weller in particular, a sentiment shared by
Darren Mack. Both men were losing, both men blamed Judge
Weller, and both men started a campaign against him.
"We felt that something big did have to happen in order
for people to know what was going on in order to shed
light on the situation," Small says
"Something big like what? Like a judge being shot?"
Roberts asks.
"No," Small says. "We never talked about that. We never
thought about that, we never wanted anyone to get hurt."
Clearly, Weller was not a popular judge. According to a
tally kept by the local bar association – lawyers when
given the choice – chose to get Weller off their case.
"Judge Weller had twice as many preemptory challenges as
the other family court judges," says the Reno Gazette's
Martha Bellilse, who specializes in legal affairs for
her newspaper.
Asked what kind of criticism she has heard about Judge
Weller, Bellisle says, "That he tended to make decisions
quickly, wouldn’t hear both sides."
But being unpopular and having a bias are two different
things. Bellisle she doesn't know if there is any
evidence the judge made rulings that were more favorable
to women. "To the best of my knowledge, I don’t know
that he had any bias," she says.
Just two weeks after the shooting, Judge Weller had
recovered and held a press conference but he wouldn’t
address the Mack case.
"In every case, as much as we try to avoid it, often
times there are winners and losers," he told reporters.
"My job is to go into the courtroom and decide cases
without bias and that’s what I've striven to do the
entire time that I've been on the bench."
Dean Tong was part of Darren Mack’s divorce legal team
and says Mack had said Weller was a "anti-father's
rights judge."
Tong also says Darren was a difficult client. "He seemed
like a guy who would have trouble listening to others.
He wanted to basically call the shots," he remembers.
Tong, who specializes in custody issues, warned Darren
there are certain things that just won’t sit well with
any judge when it comes to deciding who gets custody.
"He wanted to still continue to do what he was doing,
which was the sex swinging on the side," Tong explains.
Tong says he explained to his client that his
extra-curricular activities could jeopardize the case.
Mack's response? "He took a deep breath and said 'Well
you know, we’ll address it. We’ll talk about it,'" Tong
tells Roberts.
Apparently Darren didn’t take the warning seriously. In
fact, he later took a trip to the famous Moonlite Bunny
Ranch, a legal, licensed brothel, to celebrate his
impending divorce
But back at home the party was over.
"When it comes to court, people are very naïve. They
don’t understand until it hits them on paper that a
judge can alter your life in a New York minute. And
that’s what happened here," says Tong.
Judge Weller had repeatedly asked Darren and Charla to
try to reach some kind of financial agreement on their
own, so he wouldn’t be forced to do it for them. They
did hammer out a deal, but when that fell apart the
judge stepped in and ordered Darren to pay up.
"He had to pay her a lump sum of $480,000, out of which
she was supposed to buy a home and a car. And then over
the next five years, she was supposed to receive $10,000
a month in spousal support," Robb explains.
Michael says the ruling left his friend Darren
disillusioned and frightened. "Could not believe this
was happening. He was about to lose a lot of his money,"
he says.
Darren was ordered to make that payment of close to half
a million dollars to Charla, but soon after that hearing
she was dead.
Asked if he thinks Weller's rulings against Darren
pushed him over the edge, Michael says, "I can’t say
Darren did this. Do I think Judge Weller's rulings added
to all that is enough to push someone over the edge? One
hundred percent. Yes sir. "
Four days after Charla's murder, there was still no sign
of Darren Mack. His daughter Erika was now safely in
hiding, but Charla's friends were still on edge
Mark Phillips was Charla’s boyfriend at the time of her
death, and admits he feared he might be the next target.
Asked what he did to protect himself, Phillips tells
Roberts, "I always had the shade drawn in my house. I
would walk through the backyard to see if there were any
disturbances before I went inside…. Always had
everything double-locked."
While the people of Reno were lying low, Darren Mack was
living large at a resort in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico.
It was familiar territory for Darren; he had been there
a year earlier for a swinger’s convention.
Newspaper reporter Martha Bellilse went to Mexico to
retrace Darren’s steps and met hotel employee Virginia
Delgadillo, who said she met a man fitting Darren’s
description last June
Virginia had no idea the guest flirting with her in the
gym was a wanted man. "He was looking at me like (makes
face like he’s checking her out) and just standing here
and just like what is your name or something," she
remembers.
Mack’s aggressive come on also caught the attention of
another guest in the gym.
"There was a pilot who had also stayed at the same
resort and was working out at the gym," Det. Chalmers
explains. "He said the man was extremely arrogant and
cocky and continuously was flirting with the young
female employee."
When that pilot flew back to the states, he gave
authorities the break they were looking for. "He saw the
national media coverage of Darren Mack and believed that
was the same person he’d see in Cabo San Lucas," says
Chalmers.
The pilot called the FBI, but by the time agents got to
the resort Darren was long gone, heading across the Sea
of Cortez to another sunny Mexican shore.
Reno investigators, working with the FBI, were tracking
Mack across Mexico, but he always managed to remain one
step ahead. Then exactly one week after he disappeared,
Darren Mack shocked everyone by offering to surrender
Mack called Dick Gammick, Reno's district attorney, who
is a long-time Mack family friend. "He did express
confidence to me that he called me because I'm the only
one he trusts in the system," Gammick explained during a
press conference.
While still in hiding, Darren also retained two
high-priced defense attorneys, David Chesnoff and Scott
Freeman.
They took over the surrender negotiations.
Neither Chesnoff, nor Freeman, would say Mack had killed
his wife Charla.
"That’s not in dispute, is it?" Roberts asked.
"I think everything in this case is in dispute," Freeman
replied.
What’s not in dispute is that they see Darren as a man
pushed to the limit.
A series of e-mails Mack was sending while he was still
on the run reveal a disturbing picture of this man. For
example, in one message he holds himself up as a martyr
for the father's rights movement saying, "remember, they
want me as a sacrificial lamb. They want the pleasure of
executing me.”
In the same vain, he later writes that his story must
get attention "To save the hundreds of thousands yet to
go through little Nazi Germany in the divorce industry."
Asked what that suggests to him, Chesnoff tells Roberts,
"I mean if that isn’t a clear example to a lawyer, or my
colleague to have a psychiatric analysis of our client
which I believe this calls out for that’s what I make of
that."
On June 22, 11 days after that violent rampage that
shook the city of Reno, police anxiously awaited the
surrender of the man they believe to be responsible for
the murder of Charla Mack and the shooting of Judge
Chuck Weller.,
There was a question whether Darren Mack would give up
without a fight, but in the end, the millionaire
fugitive quietly turned himself in at a luxury hotel in
Puerto Vallarta.
Mack’s last night was spent in a stark Mexican jail
cell—a dramatic reversal of fortune for a man who was
accustomed to living the high life.
What prompted Darren Mack to surrender?
"The only thing that I can think of is that he was
obsessed with exposing what he believed were Judge
Weller's injustices," says Det. Chalmers.
Darren Mack was carrying $36,000 in cash, 20 credit
cards and a suitcase full of evidence.
"A pair of shoes with some blood spatter, some other
clothing with what appeared to be blood stains were in
the suitcase," explains Chalmers.
Chalmers says the blood stains on the clothing were
analyzed and that the DNA profile matched Charla Mack.
Darren Mack, charged with the murder of his wife and the
attempted murder of Judge Weller, has pled not guilty
Mack's attorneys say this may be a case of self defense.
"If our investigation shows that this woman was violent
and could get angry and do things that were
inappropriate, that may actually raise the question of
self-defense," explains David Chesnoff.
But Charla's friend Christine Libert tells Roberts, "She
would never try to attack Darren or do anything like
that. Even if she would, which I don't think she ever
would, she would certainly have never even considered it
with her daughter around. Ever. Period. It just wouldn't
have happened."
Mack's attorneys may raise questions about his state of
mind. "In conversations we’ve had with our client we are
concerned that he isn’t grasping all the various legal
issues that are required to be grasped to fully assist
us in what we need to do in this case," says Scott
Freeman.
Asked if Mack is mentally competent, Chesnoff says,
"It's not for lawyers or prosecutors to decide… it’s for
experts."
But an insanity defense could be a hard sell, given they
will need to work around that so-called "to-do list."
Asked what he thinks of the list, Chesnoff says "I'd
have to know who wrote it before I could tell ya."
"You don't think Darren wrote this?" Roberts asked.
"I didn't say that," Chesnoff replies. "But I don't know
who wrote it. And until I know who wrote it, how could I
possibly speculate as to what the meaning of it was?"
The much-anticipated murder trial will not get underway
until later this year, and Mack’s attorneys say they’ll
spare no expense to defend their client
Chesnoff says Mack's net worth is zero and that he is in
bankruptcy. But the lawyers are not taking the case pro
bono. "He has a lotta friends and family that care about
him," Chesnoff says.
Eight months after the violent events of that June
morning, many still wrestle with the fallout, like
custody litigation expert Dean Tong.
"What has this case done to the father's rights movement
in this country?" Roberts asks Tong.
"And it's certainly slapped me in the face," Tong says.
"How dare you be a martyr for this, for what we've
worked so hard for."
But Michael Small, released from jail and back home with
his new wife and family in Reno, disagrees with Tong.
"Do I think the movement has been set back? Just the
opposite. I think it’s just going to go forward and be
more in the forefront,” he says.
Darren Mack, though now behind bars, still sees himself
as a father’s rights advocate. His daughter Erika
regularly visits him in jail and is currently living
with Charla's mother.
Charla's friends Ann and Christine says Erika doesn't
like to talk about her mom, but knows the circumstances
surrounding the murder and that her father has been
charged with the killing.
"She also hears a lot of comments from Darren's friends
and family that try to instill doubt in her mind. And
so, now she has made the comment, 'Well, we don't know
if my daddy killed my mommy.' She said, 'Maybe the cat
did it,'" says Ann.
Erika is now nine. While prosecutors will try to avoid
it, Erika may be called to testify against her father at
his murder trial.
"I think that Erika should know that her mother wanted
nothing more than to raise Erika. Erika was her number
one joy in life," says Christine. "And her not being
here has nothing to do with her not wanting to be here.
She wanted to raise her and watch her grow and be a part
of her life forever."
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Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty. Both of
Erika's grandmothers are fighting for custody.
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