A former postal worker suspected of killing his mother and a mail carrier was captured today by police officers who received a call that he was drinking at a bar.
The dismissed postal worker, Mark R. Hilbun, was arrested in Huntington Beach, about 20 miles northwest of Dana Point, where, the police say, he opened fire in a post office on Thursday.
"They didn't even approach this guy with their guns drawn," Frank McNaughton, general manager of the bar, said of four officers who made the arrest. "They asked him to step outside. He was real complacent."
Mr. Hilbun, who, the police say, had been stalking a mail carrier, is suspected of stabbing his mother on Thursday before fatally shooting a postal employee and wounding three others.
Mr. McNaughton said that a customer recognized Mr. Hilbun, 38, who was watching sports on a television set and having a drink, and that a friend of the customer called the police.
Dismissed for Stalking
Lieut. Charles Poe of the police in Huntington Beach said Mr. Hilbun, who earlier had a mustache, was clean shaven, and his hair had been cut.
Mr. Hilbun was a carrier at the post office until last year, when he was dismissed for stalking a co-worker.
Lieut. Bob Rivas of the Orange County Sheriff's Department said the police believed that before his arrest Mr. Hilbun had robbed and shot two people at an automated teller machine in nearby Fountain Valley. The victims, Jim Brown, 44, and Elizabeth Shea, 28, who were not seriously injured, told the police that a man matching Mr. Hilbun's description demanded Mr. Brown's wallet and shot them just after midnight.
The post office here reopened on Friday with 12 armed guards, but there was no home delivery. Residents picked up their mail at the office. About half of the 65 employees scheduled to work stayed home. Carriers returned to their routes today.
The attack on Thursday occurred within hours of a shooting at a post office in Dearborn, Mich., in which a postal mechanic, Larry Jasion, killed a co-worker and wounded two others before fatally shooting himself.
By Lily Dizon - Los Angeles Times
July 7, 1993
LAGUNA NIGUEL — A Municipal Court judge Tuesday
temporarily suspended murder charges against
fired postal worker Mark Hilbun and ordered a
hearing to determine if he is mentally competent
to stand trial. The 39-year-old Dana Point
man has been charged with murdering his mother
and then a former co-worker at the Dana Point
Post Office during a two-day rampage in May. Five other people were
wounded in that incident and three other attacks,
and Hilbun has also been charged with those
shootings. A preliminary hearing to
determine if there was enough evidence to try
Hilbun was scheduled for Tuesday. But his
attorney requested that the hearing and all
other criminal proceedings be suspended until a
Superior Court judge decides if Hilbun is
mentally competent to assist with his defense. Hilbun had worked at the post
office nearly four years before he was fired in
December, in part for stalking a female employee.
Police said he went to the post office that day
to kidnap her. She was not hurt in the shooting. Municipal Court Judge Pamela
L. Iles scheduled the competency hearing for
next Tuesday in Superior Court. At least two
experts will testify to Hilbun's inability to
stand trial, said Deputy Public Defender David
Biggs. Appearing in court briefly
Tuesday, Hilbun looked haggard and disoriented
as he walked with apparent discomfort around a
wired jail cell. His hair was disheveled and his
previously cleanshaven face sported a full beard. In an interview outside court,
Biggs said Hilbun is mentally unstable as
indicated by an "intentional" fall from a second-story
walkway in Orange County Jail last month. Hilbun broke a vertebra and
suffered a concussion in the June 21, incident,
which happened while he was out of his cell for
his daily recreational break. After a two-week stay at a
hospital, he returned to the jail Friday and is
being monitored daily by the medical staff. "Someone leaping from a
second floor . . . and didn't break the fall
with his hands but instead landed on his head .
. . indicates to me that that individual is not
mentally competent," Biggs said. "He didn't
slip; he did that intentionally." Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard
King, who is prosecuting the case, declined to
comment on Hilbun's mental condition, saying
only: "Under the law, he is presumed competent." King said his office has yet
to make a decision on whether to seek the death
penalty. Biggs has said that he is
considering an insanity defense but emphasized
Tuesday that the competency hearing is only to
determine if a defendant is fit to stand trial
and does not address the sanity issue. If a judge concludes that
Hilbun is mentally incompetent, he would
probably be sent to a state facility pending the
results of future competency hearings. If Hilbun is determined to be
mentally competent to stand trial, he will
return to court for a preliminary hearing. Police believe Hilbun stabbed
his mother to death in her Corona del Mar home
on May 6, then drove to the Dana Point Post
Office and shot a fellow postal carrier to death
and wounded another. Hilbun eluded police for two
days, during which he allegedly shot and wounded
at least four more people in three attacks in
Dana Point, Newport Beach and Fountain Valley. He was arrested peacefully
while watching television in a Huntington Beach
sports bar shortly after midnight May 8. Fired Mailman Indicted in Shooting Spree Courts: Mark Hilbun is to be
arraigned Tuesday in the deaths of his mother
and a former co-worker. By Thuan Le - Los Angeles
Times January 15, 1994 SANTA ANA — An ex-letter
carrier was indicted Friday in the two-day
rampage in March that left his mother and a
former co-worker dead. The indictment, authorities
said, also accuses Mark Richard Hilbun of
attempting to kill seven other people. Hilbun, 39, is scheduled to
be arraigned Tuesday in Orange County Superior
Court on two counts of murder, seven counts of
attempted murder, and one count each of robbery,
attempted kidnaping, burglary and killing his
mother's dog, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan
Brown. Prosecutors allege that
Hilbun, of San Juan Capistrano, killed his
mother, Frances, in her Newport Beach home and
shot two postal workers, one fatally, as he
tried to kidnap Kimberly Springer at the post
office where he once worked. Hilbun was infatuated with
Springer, who worked with Hilbun until he was
fired in December, 1992, authorities said. The indictment by the Orange
County Grand Jury was handed up Thursday but was
not made public until Friday. It cancels a Jan.
22 preliminary hearing on charges filed earlier
involving the same incidents. Diagnosed as a manic-depressive,
Hilbun has a history of emotional problems,
according to police. His attorney, Deputy Public
Defender David Biggs, tried unsuccessfully last
month to have him declared mentally incapable of
standing trial. Hilbun is being held without
bail in Orange County Jail, where he apparently
attempted suicide in June by jumping from a
second-story walkway. Authorities say after he
fatally stabbed his mother and her dog in her
Corona del Mar home March 6, he drove to the
Dana Point post office where he had been fired. After allegedly killing a
letter carrier, Hilbun tried to shoot another
postal worker and the postmaster before leaving
the building, police said. He allegedly attacked and
wounded five other people in Dana Point, Newport
Beach and Fountain Valley during a two-day
period. Hilbun was arrested while
drinking cocktails and watching television in a
Huntington Beach sports bar.