Prosecutor Says Accused Killer Has Violent History

VAN NUYS — A former Canoga Park man, on trial for allegedly killing his ex-girlfriend in Saugus after she testified against him in a probation violation hearing, had a history of violent relationships with other women as well, the prosecutor said in her opening statement Friday.

“Perhaps the single most important similarity is that when the victims threatened to involve legal authorities, the defendant became especially aggressive and vindictive toward the victims,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Chasworth.

“One of the defendant’s common tactics is that he makes kind of a preemptive strike and calls the police first, claiming that he has been assaulted,” Chasworth said as Mark Bowersock’s trial for the slaying of Laurie Ann Prejean got underway in Van Nuys Superior Court.

Bowersock’s defense is that he shot Prejean at her sister’s home on Feb. 3, 1995, in self-defense after she attacked him with a gun. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Bowersock’s attorney, Public Defender Charles Klum, declined to make an opening statement Friday, but outside court expressed confidence that once the jury hears “the complete story,” they will exonerate Bowersock.

Chasworth described the shooting through the words of a woman who was talking with Prejean on the phone when it occurred.

“All of a sudden, she hears Laurie say, ‘No, oh my God, please no!’ ” Chasworth said. “Only moments later, she hears two gunshots, and then she hears the victim taking her last few breaths.”

Just days before the killing, while he was in jail on a probation violation for having assaulted another ex-girlfriend, Bowersock told someone that he was angry with Prejean, Chasworth said.

After he was released, the prosecutor said, Bowersock packed his bags and went to the home of Prejean’s sister. The prosecution will produce a cabdriver who remembers taking Bowersock there for $82 and neighbors who will testify they saw him leave the house in Prejean’s car, Chasworth said.

The morning after Prejean was found dead, she said, Bowersock arrived at the home of a woman friend in Arizona, where the two changed his appearance and buried a gun in the desert.

“He tells his friend that he is in trouble because he just killed his girlfriend in self-defense,” Chasworth told the jury.

From there, she said, Bowersock went to St. Louis but found that he had no place to stay, so he returned to Los Angeles and turned himself in.

“I’d have to say he had pretty bad luck in committing this crime,” the prosecutor said.