ST. GEORGE — A West Valley City man appeared in court in Cedar City last week – just days before a five-day jury trial was scheduled to begin – and pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated attempted murder in a 2016 incident involving the shooting death of a Cedar City resident.
Mark Mair, 30, appeared in 5th District Court in Cedar City where he pleaded guilty to first-degree felony murder in the death of Justin Hanna in a Cedar City trailer park in July 2016.
On the remaining charge of first-degree felony attempted aggravated murder, defense attorney Douglas Terry entered an Alford plea on his client’s behalf, which means the defendant was not admitting to the conduct as outlined in the charge but was pleading guilty for the benefit of the plea bargain and to avoid the potential consequences of going to trial. The plea is up to the discretion of the judge, which was approved in this case and the state did not object.
The victims in this case were contacted and informed of the resolution.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, the state agreed to drop the seven remaining counts of discharging a firearm, which are third-degree felonies.
The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 22, following a presentence investigation that will provide the court sentencing recommendations.
According to the charging documents filed in the case, Mair went to a Cedar City trailer home in the early morning hours of July 24, 2016, and pushed in a fan sitting in a bedroom window and then leaned through the window. He began firing a gun toward Hanna and Mair’s ex-girlfriend, who had been in a bed together. The ex-girlfriend later told police she and Mair broke up a few days before the shooting.
Hanna was shot three times before he stumbled into the front room of the home and collapsed from his wounds. He died at the residence a short time later.
Mair has been in custody in the Iron County Correctional Facility since his arrest in August 2016 in Grand Junction, Colorado, where he was booked into a Colorado jail on $1 million bail.
The state was originally asking for the death penalty in the case, which was taken off the table earlier this year.
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