Mark Hacking pled guilty today in a Salt Lake City courtroom to murdering his wife last year as she slept. Hacking said he shot her in the head after she discovered that he had lied to her about his future career plans and the couple's future together. Hacking told her he was attending medical school in North Carolina when he was not. He also told his wife he had graduated from the University of Utah which was not true.
Lori Hacking's body was not found until three months after she was killed. Her husband put her body in a trash bin where volunteers searching a landfill found it. The 27-year-old woman's body was badly decomposed but she was later positively identified.
Prosecutors were unable to determine if Lori Hacking was five months pregnant at the time of her death. She had apparently told friends that she was pregnant shortly before she was killed. If so, it would have made her husband's actions a capital offense.
When asked if he committed the crime, Hacking told the judge bluntly, 'I intentionally shot Lori Hacking in the head with a .22 rifle.'
It was too much for Lori's father, Eraldo Soares to hear. He later told reporters that Hacking's confession 'was just like a knife going right through my heart. I could not imagine that he could do that to Lori.'
Prosecutors indicate that Hacking faces a sentencing range from six year to life in prison.
'Under this charge, there is no possibility of probation. He will be going to prison,' prosecutor Bob Stott said. 'He pleaded guilty to murder, and that's what we were looking for. We were looking for the life sentence.'
