AK-47 killing appeal to fault state law

A Woodlands attorney plans to appeal the recent conviction of a Montgomery man who shot his girlfriend eight times with an AK-47 on New Year’s Eve 2019, citing Texas law that doesn’t require therapists to report clients with homicidal thoughts.

Mark Anthony Briseno was convicted and sentenced Tuesday of murder in the death of Daria Khoussinov, 28, by a Montgomery County jury in the 221st state District Court.

Briseno also is ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

“Mark’s actions destroyed two families on Dec. 31, 2019, and he has always felt remorse about what happened to the woman he loved,” said Andrea Kolski, who represents Briseno. “He has always taken responsibility for his actions.”

Questioning Texas law

However, Kolski said if Texas law required therapists to report clients who express potential violence to someone or themselves, the incident may never have happened. She said the outcome could have been different if that information and Briseno’s medical history had been allowed by visiting Judge Susan Stovall as evidence.

“We presented evidence that Mark Briseno suffered from diagnosed mental illness and a neurodevelopment disorder and brain dysfunction that was made worse with alcohol,” Kolski said of Briseno, who was able to purchase the weapon. “That evidence was kept out in the guilt-innocence part of the case.

“We are disappointed for Mark and the Briseno family that he received the sentence he did.”

911 disturbance calls

Donna Berkey with the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said law enforcement officers responded to Briseno’s home in the 200 block of North Lynx Trail in Woodforest following several 911 calls about a domestic disturbance.

“A neighbor heard what sounded like gunfire and then she saw a male come out on the porch talking on a cellphone and he seemed distraught,” Berkey said. “(Briseno) went to another neighbor’s house, taking the murder weapon with him, and he tells that neighbor that something bad had happened and he killed Daria.”

Berkey said Khoussinov was found in the couple’s bedroom. Briseno, she said, fired 10 rounds, striking Khoussinov eight times.

During the trial, Berkey said evidence was presented by experts and family about emotional and psychological abuse during the couple’s relationship. Briseno had no prior criminal history.

The jury, Berkey said, did consider temporary insanity as a result of intoxication that would have mitigated the punishment. However, the jury did not believe that was a factor in the shooting.

Kolski said Briseno, who said on the scene he had shot Khoussinov, didn’t “deserve” the life sentence based on his cooperation with investigators and his mental health.

Kolski said Briseno had been seeing a therapist between 2013 and 2019. He stopped seeing the therapist after his insurance changed, affecting which services were covered and which were not.

“In 2013, he expressed suicidal and homicidal thoughts,” Koliski said. “There was no obligation by the therapist to report that to anyone.”