Correction: An earlier version of this article erroneously referred to the gun as a Ruger .44 Magnum Blackhawk. The gun is a Ruger .41 Magnum Blackhawk. The Empire regrets this error.
Shots rang out over Excursion Inlet as Mark De Simone fired, multiple witnesses have testified in court this week.
De Simone was on a hunting and fishing trip with a few others in May 2016, and Vince Bengston — who was also on the trip — testified this Wednesday in court about watching De Simone fire the gun.
A rodent, identified by Bengston as a marten, had scurried near one of the cabins the men were staying at, he said. Bill Young, the owner of the cabins and organizer of the trip, yelled out that somebody should shoot the large rodent, Bengston said.
Bengston and De Simone happened to be the closest people to the marten, Bengston said, and he thought De Simone might want a chance to shoot it.
“Mark had expressed an interest in guns,” Bengston said while on the stand Wednesday.
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Bengston removed the Ruger .41 Magnum Blackhawk revolver from the brown holster on his chest and handed it to De Simone, he said, and watched as De Simone fired all five rounds at the marten. All five missed, Bengston said, but not by much.
It was the only time on that hunting trip anyone saw De Simone fire a gun, multiple witnesses have testified.
Just days later, prosecutors allege, De Simone used the same revolver to shoot Tony Antonio “Tony” Rosales twice in the head, killing him.
The third day of witness testimony in the murder trial of De Simone centered around that Ruger .41 Magnum Blackhawk revolver. Bengston said he carried the gun in the holster on his chest for the majority of that hunting trip to protect himself from bears in the area.
Bengston, who flew in from Kansas for the trial, said he’s knowledgeable and “proficient” with guns and that he is careful to use them safely. When he handed the gun to De Simone that day to shoot at the marten, Bengston said, the gun had five bullets in it and one empty chamber.
The empty chamber, Bengston detailed while under direct examination, was lined up under the hammer so that if the gun were dropped or mishandled and went off, it wouldn’t fire a round. Bengston said the gun was an older model, so he was just trying to be as safe as he could.
Young, the owner of the gun who lent it to Bengston, testified Monday that the gun is 35 or 40 years old.
Firing it twice
Assistant District Attorney Amy Paige questioned Bengston about this, and asked that if someone wanted to fire this gun, what they would need to do.
“Cock the hammer, pull the trigger,” Bengston said.
“And in your experience with that type of firearm,” Paige asked, “if you wanted to fire it a second time, what would you have to do?”
“Cock the hammer again and pull the trigger,” Bengston said.
Paige foretold this exchange during her opening statement this past Friday, as she said the fact that two shots were fired signals a deliberate shooting and not an accident. As Bengston testified, firing two shots with that gun requires the deliberate actions of cocking the hammer, pulling the trigger, cocking the hammer again and pulling the trigger again. That’s how a single-action revolver works, he said.
A single-action gun requires the shooter to cock the hammer and then pull the trigger. With a double-action gun, according to Gun Digest, pulling the trigger can both cock the hammer and fire the gun.
There has been conflicting testimony about the gun being a single-action or double-action gun this week. Young, the owner of the gun, identified it as a double-action gun during testimony Monday. Alaska State Trooper Sgt. Matthew Hightower said it was a single-action gun Tuesday, and Bengston also said it was single-action on Wednesday.
Bengston said De Simone gave the Blackhawk back after firing at the marten. Bengston said he reloaded the gun just as it was before — set on an empty chamber. Bengston continued to keep it on him for the rest of the week, he said, except for when he was in a cabin or on a boat.
Bengston would drive one of the boats they had on the trip, and said he would put the gun (in the holster) in a black bag that also included emergency materials if something went wrong on the boat.
Later in the time they were there, Bengston gave the bag to De Simone because De Simone was starting to drive the boat more, Bengston said. On Sunday, May 15, 2016, De Simone was driving a boat that contained Rosales, Sam Bradshaw and Seth Bradshaw, Bengston testified.
Testimony from the Bradshaws on Monday and Tuesday stated that while the two of them were absent from the cabin, they heard two shots and came back to the cabin to find Rosales dead. Both Bradshaws said De Simone admitted he had shot Rosales.
Bengston was at another cabin at the time, he said, but came over on a boat once the two shots had been fired. Bengston spent the rest of the evening trying to secure the scene on the beach, he said, as well as going to a neighboring cabin and contacting law enforcement for help. It wasn’t until a while after the shooting, he said, that he examined the Blackhawk and saw that two shots had been discharged.
The gun will continue to be a topic in the trial, as Assistant Public Defender Deborah Macaulay has said she intends on calling gun experts to the stand.
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or amccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.
Juneau Superior Court Judge Philip Pallenberg, center, listens to Assistant Public Defender Deborah Macaulay, left, and Assistant District Attorney Amy Paige in the trial of Mark De Simone in Juneau Superior Court on Wednesday, May 2, 2018. De Simone is accused of killing Duilio Antonio “Tony” Rosales during a hunting trip in Excursion Inlet in 2016. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)
