Centennial – An Arapahoe County jury is deciding whether Sir Mario Owens intended to kill another man at an Aurora park on the Fourth of July in 2004 or whether Owens acted in self-defense.
He is accused of shooting and killing Gregory Vann at Lowry Park after a rap event put on by Vann and Javad Marshall-Fields.
The case has been in the spotlight for the subsequent killing of a witness who was to testify against Owens and his alleged accomplice.
Owens, his friend Robert Ray and another man also have been charged in the death of Marshall- Fields, who was gunned down a year later along with his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe. The deaths occurred shortly before Marshall-Fields was to testify at Ray’s trial.
During closing arguments Thursday in the Vann killing, prosecutors said Owens, now 22, was Ray’s “flunkie” and went to the park for him.
“Robert Ray and Sir Mario Owens show up and they try to be obnoxious, flashing their heat, flashing their guns,” prosecutor John Hower said.
After chaos broke out at the park following an altercation, Hower said, Owens and Ray began shooting. Vann was killed, and Marshall- Fields was injured. Hower said Owens pointed his pistol at a third man, but the gun jammed, or else he would have been shoot too.
Owens was almost a foot taller than Vann.
Defense attorney Daniel King said Owens shot Vann in self-defense.
“In the panic and fear of being attacked, he reacted in the only way he knew he could,” King said. “In a split second, he had to act.”
King also questioned the Aurora Police Department’s initial investigation at the park, saying police did not take some evidence for further examination.
In November, Ray was convicted of being an accessory to murder in Vann’s death. Ray faces 32 to 108 years in prison on seven of the nine charges. He’ll be sentenced next month. The district attorney is expected to announce soon whether she will seek the death penalty against Ray and Owens in the deaths of Marshall-Fields and Wolfe.
Staff writer Carlos Illescas can be reached at 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com.
