Man gets death sentence in S.A. cop’s slaying
Otis McKane was sentenced to death late Friday for killing San Antonio police Detective Benjamin Marconi, a beloved officer who the defendant had insisted was simply a convenient and random target of his anger.
Prosecutors were equally insistent that the execution-style slaying downtown was planned and calculated, requiring hours of stalking. The jury deliberated more than seven hours in a case that horrified San Antonians because it was caught on video, witnessed by several bystanders on a busy street and seemed so predatory.
McKane, 36, shot Marconi, 50, twice in the head in November 2016 after approaching a parked patrol vehicle where the 20-year police veteran was writing a traffic citation while working an overtime shift.
When jurors convicted McKane of capital murder on July 26, they deliberated only about 25 minutes.
McKane told investigators and news media he had lashed out at the first police officer he saw because no one at the police department would help him when he tried to report that the mother of his son had violated a visitation order.
Prosecutor Mario Del Prado, in closing arguments for the death sentence, said McKane had deliberately planned a “heinous and unspeakable” crime.
He reminded the jury that surveillance video taken from Public Safety Headquarters downtown showed McKane circling the complex for hours. He made a U-turn on South Santa Rosa Street when Marconi stopped a motorist, ran up to shoot the officer and finally crashed his vehicle through two traffic barriers in a parking lot as he fled.
Prosecutors played dozens of videos, taken from Public Safety Headquarters and from inside Marconi’s patrol vehicle, that presented the shooting as if watching a movie. They displayed transcripts of witness testimony from the four-week trial describing domestic violence and McKane’s criminal record, which included terroristic threats, cocaine possession and drug sales.
The assault of a court bailiff right after the announcement of his capital murder conviction was part of that list — also on video.
Defense lawyers brought in experts to portray McKane’s upbringing and circumstances — oldest child of a single mother responsible for younger siblings, the product of a poor neighborhood who grew to resent “the system” because the mother of his child would not let him see his son — as key to his escalation to a killer.
Jurors had to answer two questions: whether McKane would pose a continuing threat, or if there were sufficient mitigating circumstances — regarding the offense, his character, background or personal moral culpability — to warrant a sentence of life in prison rather than death.
A gasp was heard in the gallery as state District Judge Ron Rangel read the panel’s “yes” answer to the first question, and “no” to the second.
McKane showed no reaction to the sentence as he was handcuffed. His mother, Sandra McKane, sitting with two of her adult children and a family friend, covered her face and wept. The four left the room, embracing. A male supporter yelled, “Love you, Otis,” as the prisoner was led away.
Jurors began deliberating at 12:48 p.m., directed by Rangel to stay in the cleared courtroom to maintain social distancing because of COVID-19. They reached a verdict at about 8:30 p.m.and the gallery was packed with observers when the sentence was read 30 minutes later.
The Marconi family, San Antonio police officers and Bexar County sheriff ’s deputies were in attendance. So was District Attorney Joe D. Gonzales, who afterward called Marconi’s killing a “cold-blooded assassination” and said he recognized the difficulty faced by the jury — “chosen during a pandemic” to decide Bexar County’s first death penalty case in nearly six years.
In his closing argument, defense attorney Fuchs disputed that the state met its burden in showing that McKane was a continuing danger.
“The murder of Benjamin Marconi is tragic, wrong and evil,” he said. “No one disputes that — he didn’t deserve it. But what happens now to Otis McKane?”