Second jury: Marzan
guilty in wife’s killing

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

Police, prosecutors and the courts are getting better at protecting victims of domestic violence since 24-year-old Arlene Marzan was fatally shot by her husband last year, a deputy prosecutor says.

Deputy Prosecutor Chris Van Marter made the comments after a Circuit Court jury yesterday found Saldy Marzan guilty of second-degree murder in Arlene Marzan's death on Jan. 27, 1997.

The verdict came in Marzan's retrial after less than three hours of deliberations.

Marzan's first trial ended in a mistrial after jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict.

Marzan faces life in prison with the possibility of parole when he is sentenced Jan. 13 before Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario.

Marzan was separated from his wife at the time of the shooting, and he was under a restraining order to stay away from her.

Marzan admitted that he abused her and threatened her several times during their eight-year marriage.

Van Marter said after the verdict: "The evidence showed that the defendant pulled the trigger while his wife was on the floor. It was an intentional act. It was no accident."

Marzan's lawyer, Chester Kanai, told jurors that Marzan should either be acquitted because the shooting was an accident or found guilty of manslaughter.

Van Marter told jurors yesterday during closing arguments that Marzan was guilty of second-degree murder because witness accounts showed that Marzan had his finger on the trigger of the gun and aimed it at his wife, which shows intention on his part.

But Kanai told jurors that Marzan never intended to kill his wife.

Marzan called his wife, who was living with his brother and sister-in-law in a Kalihi apartment, asking for help after he smoked crystal methamphetamine and his heart began to race, Kanai said, but he said he became angry when she told him she wasn't going over to his apartment.

He drove over to his brother's apartment in a friend's car and took a gun out of the trunk. He said he didn't know if it was loaded. He said he only wanted to scare his wife with the gun, not shoot her, Kanai said.

His wife walked away from him and at one point she tried to grab the gun. The defense argued that the gun went off in a struggle.