Life Sentence Given in 2 General Dynamics Shootings

A disgruntled General Dynamics worker who went on a shooting rampage after being fired in January received two life sentences Thursday for killing a labor negotiator and severely wounding his former supervisor.

Robert Earl Mack pleaded guilty Nov. 2 to second degree-murder in the shooting death of Michael Konz, 25, and to attempted murder in the wounding of James T. English, 52. Both men were shot in the back of the head on Jan. 24 after Mack chased them following a grievance hearing at the aerospace firm’s plant near Lindbergh Field.

Mack’s first trial ended with a deadlocked jury last summer. He agreed to a plea bargain on the first day of a scheduled retrial.

Mack received a sentence of 15 years to life for the second-degree murder conviction and a life sentence for premeditated attempted murder. Superior Court Judge Richard Murphy told Mack that he would first become eligible for parole in 17 years.

Thursday’s sentencing hearing gave English his first opportunity to speak out about the attack. In asking for the maximum sentence, he told Murphy that he is legally blind, has severe hearing difficulties and suffers from a host of neurological problems.

“I am not the same person I was before brain surgery,” he said. “I did survive, but I don’t feel very lucky.”

English said he wanted a chance to counteract what he called the “disinformation” from Mack, notably that Mack intended to kill himself after being fired by the company where he worked his entire adult life.

Evidence presented by prosecutors at the first trial indicated that Mack was terminated according to company policy after supervisors meticulously documented a string of absences and habitual tardiness.

English said that Mack obviously planned the attack because only hours before, Mack used what he said was his last $40 to purchase a handgun on a street corner. While Mack maintains he planned to kill himself at the grievance hearing, English pointed out that, like numerous times in the past, Mack was late for a scheduled meeting.

“Michael Konz and I were only doing our jobs and we got shot in the head for doing so,” English said.

Mack continued to deny planning the attack and said he didn’t remember the shooting. During his trial, he testified that he blacked out and had the sensation of riding a “big, black cat.”

“Let me just say this: Sorry this had to happen to all of us -- Mr. English, Mr. Konz and myself,” he read from a statement.

” . . . I am told that I killed a man, a man who was still a baby when I was working at Convair. I would never have done such a thing if I had planned it. I planned only one--that was my own life. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.”