SAN ANTONIO — The trial of Otis McKane continued into a fourth day Thursday. McKane is facing capital murder charges in the death of SAPD detective Benjamin Marconi, who was ambushed and shot in 2016 while conducting a traffic stop downtown.
Day four of the trial introduced testimony from multiple San Antonio police officers who described their accounts of responding to alerts of an “officer down” Nov. 20, 2016.
Officer Frances Ochoa worked with Detective Benjamin Marconi for at least two years.
The state prosecution team presented the courtroom, footage captured from Ochoa’s body-worn camera the day of Marconi’s death.
Jurors and family of Marconi’s watched and listened to the urgency expressed by Ochoa as she drove through traffic, sirens blaring, on her way to the crime scene in front of SAPD headquarters.
The body-worn video shows several police officers surrounding Marconi attempting to render medical aid.
Prosecutors say McKane had pulled up behind Marconi, who was conducting a traffic stop, before running up and firing off two shots as the detective was sitting inside his patrol car.
McKane told authorities he felt the need to lash out on somebody and “soothe his soul” due to a child custody issue.
Ochoa noted she initially had zero idea who the officer was when arriving on scene. She was able to run the wounded officer’s badge number through her computer, which revealed it was Detective Marconi.
“I ran out and started telling everybody because nobody knew who he was,” Ochoa said in response to a state prosecutor.
Mark Bisset, currently a sheriff’s deputy living in Colorado and a former member of the U.S. Army Special Operations Forces happened to be in San Antonio on the day of the shooting.
Bisset said he was in town with his girlfriend and children, who was competing in what he described as a Ninja Warrior competition.
Bisset was driving when he saw a man dressed in all black, later identified as Otis McKane, in possession of a pistol while approaching Marconi’s car.
Bisset said he heard at least one shot go off.
Once the assailant left, Bisset was quick to be one of many people, including police officers, attempting to rescue Marconi.
“We just tried to do something quickly, so I had turned his head to the side to pour the blood out of his mouth to try and establish an airway,” Bisset said.
Ochoa, a family assistance officer, broke the news of Marconi’s passing to his family later in the day.
Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales has said he plans to pursue the death penalty in this case. McKane faces life in prison or death by lethal injection if convicted.
The trial is expected to resume Friday in Judge Ron Rangel’s court at 9 a.m.
Testimony Wednesday included a VIA bus driver who saw McKane shortly after the shooting. He was reportedly presented with a photo lineup of suspects and identified McKane.
Also in court Wednesday, witness Alexander Limon, said he never expected to see such chaos in downtown San Antonio five years ago.
“I saw a lot of blood,” Limon said.
Limon took the stand on day three of the Otis McKane murder trial to share his account of what happened on Nov. 20, 2016.
Limon noted he had just left the La Quinta hotel across the street from San Antonio police headquarters.
Heading southbound on Santa Rosa, he saw a black sedan make a U-turn and stop behind Detective Benjamin Marconi’s patrol unit, who was making a traffic stop.
“I saw the black car stop in back of the cop car and I tell my wife, I think something’s going on because it was too fast, and somebody got out of the car real quick,” Limon said.
Limon stressed he never heard gunshots, but he saw McKane briskly making his way back to the car.
On the first day of the trial, the state detailed the efforts to save Marconi – from where the shooting happened in front of SAPD's headquarters to in the ambulance and at the hospital.
The prosecution said McKane was livid over a child custody issue and felt the need to "soothe his soul" and the shooting was about lashing out at somebody.