Bio

Mark Richard Hilbun was born in 1954. He lived in Orange County, California, and worked for the United States Postal Service at the Dana Point post office for several years. Reports described him as a former military policeman and a postal employee with a documented history of mental health problems.

Hilbun’s employment ended in late 1992. Reports differ slightly on the exact date, but they consistently state that his dismissal was connected in part to his stalking and harassment of a female postal worker, Kim Springer. He had become infatuated with Springer and had followed or harassed her for months before the attack.

Springer later filed legal claims saying Hilbun had harassed her from July 1992 until the May 1993 attack. According to reporting on her lawsuit, Hilbun had threatened her, behaved erratically, and was eventually the subject of a restraining order. The same report said he was treated in a psychiatric ward after an earlier arrest connected to the situation.

Before trial, Hilbun’s mental condition became a central issue. His defense said he had a long history of manic depression and schizophrenia and argued that delusions influenced the crimes. Prosecutors argued that he planned the attacks and understood what he was doing.

Murder Story

On May 6, 1993, Hilbun first killed his mother, Frances Nell Hilbun, at her home in the Corona del Mar area of Newport Beach, California. Court-related reporting stated that he told police he stabbed her while she slept and killed her dog because he believed he was sparing them from an approaching catastrophe.

After killing his mother and her cocker spaniel, Hilbun drove to the Dana Point post office, where he had previously worked. He entered the facility armed and called out for Kim Springer. Springer hid and was not physically injured. Hilbun shot postal worker Charles T. Barbagallo in the face after Barbagallo told him to put the gun down. Barbagallo died from the shooting.

Hilbun also wounded postal worker Peter Gates and fired toward the postmaster’s locked office door. The attempted-kidnapping charge was based on prosecutors’ belief that Hilbun went to the post office intending to capture Springer.

The crime spree continued after Hilbun fled the post office. He shot and wounded Patricia Salot in Newport Beach and later shot victims during an attempted robbery at automated teller machines in Fountain Valley. Reports also state that he fired at others but did not hit them.

Hilbun was arrested on May 8, 1993, at a sports bar in Huntington Beach after a patron recognized him from news coverage and alerted the bartender. He surrendered without a struggle, ending a two-day manhunt.

Hilbun was later tried in Orange County Superior Court. On August 6, 1996, a jury convicted him of 14 counts, including two counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder. The same reports stated that he had killed his mother and former co-worker Charles Barbagallo and wounded seven others during the crime spree.

The case then moved into the sanity phase. The jury deadlocked on whether Hilbun was legally insane during the crimes. Rather than retrying that issue, the defense proposed an agreement under which Hilbun would receive life imprisonment without the possibility of parole instead of facing a possible death sentence. That agreement was approved in November 1996.

On January 14, 1997, Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey sentenced Hilbun to nine life terms in prison. Seven of the life sentences were consecutive and two were concurrent. He also received additional prison time for other felony crimes and weapon enhancements.