Boy Who Killed a Pedophile Seeks a New Trial

5-17-2005 Florida

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Mark Berrios had dreams of being a fireman, of being a football star, but Mark got into trouble and those dreams would never come true.

"He's missed a lot. He's missed his childhood," says Margaret Loring, Mark's mom.

At 15 years old, Mark walked inside the razor sharp wires of prison. This was his new home and there was no chance of getting out.

"165139--That's me. I'm no longer a name I'm a number, a statistic," says Mark.

To understand why he is behind bars for the rest of his life, we have to start at the boardwalk in Daytona Beach eleven years ago.

"He stopped me and asked me if I needed a ride and I was like I don't think you're going where I need to go."

Mark had run away from home and was trying to get back to Jacksonville.

It was on the boardwalk where, he says, he met a man by the name of Olen Lee Hepler.

"I'm going to Jacksonville and he said get in. He gave me his phone number and said if I ever need anything call him."

Six weeks later, Mark was in trouble again. He'd run away from a detention center and this time he made a phone call.

"I was lost I suppose. I didn't want to go home. So, that was about the only other alternative I could think of. Why didn't you want to go home? Because I ran away scared about what my family would do. I still remember it (phone number) to this day."

Mark says Hepler picked him up in Jacksonville and brought him back to his beach-front home in Daytona. Mark stayed seven days.

"It was a week full of fun. He would take me out shopping to Orlando. I thought it was wonderful. I didn't have to go to school, I didn't have to do anything. All I had to do was sit there and go with him."

Then on Sunday, August 11, 1994, everything changed.

"What happened on that day? We just came back from natural springs in Ocala from swimming. We stopped by and got some alcohol. Over the course of a couple of hours, he made advances to me. 'He had never done that?' No. He called me over to him. He was sitting on the couch. He started asking me how I enjoyed living there. While we were talking, his hand starting going over to my shirt and pulled up my shirt. I moved his hand away and he stuck his hand back inside my shirt inside my pants. I tried to slap his hand away, then he slapped me that's when I grabbed his gun.
'So, you saw the gun and you thought?' I have to get out of here. 'You felt like you couldn't get out of there?' No."

Mark says there were dead-bolts on every door and he felt he couldn't get out without Hepler catching him first.

"Do you remember that moment of picking up the gun and firing it? Yes ma'm, very much so."

Mark shot Hepler in the back of the head. Police called it execution style.

"I ran to the bedroom I was living in and waited cause I didn't know if I'd actually killed him. I didn't hear anything. I grabbed his car keys and went back to Jacksonville."

Little did Mark know, the man he had just killed was a man who was under investigation.

According to court records, police were following Hepler. He was a man they believed was a pedophile preying on young, troubled boys.

Hepler's history would never make its way into the courtroom and it would eventually send a 15 year old to life in prison without parole.

"I just thought it would all work out in the end. I thought if I went up there and told the truth then everything would be o.k. and it wasn't."

Watch First Coast News at 11pm Wednesday for the second part of Mark Berrios' story. Our I-Team will show you evidence that was never used in court. We'll show you why he has new hope for a new trial. ..more.. by Jackelyn Barnard

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Teen Says He Did Not Kill Man Whose Card He Used

9-17-1994 Florida:

A Jacksonville youth pleaded not guilty Friday to the August shooting death of an Ormond-by-the-Sea man, who sheltered the boy for a few weeks.Mark Berrios, 15, will be tried as an adult in the shooting death of Olen Lee Hepler Jr., 47, of 7 Neptune Court in Ormond-by-the-Sea. A relative found Hepler Aug. 15 on the sofa with a gunshot wound to the head.Berrios is being held in the Volusia County Branch Jail without bail.Hepler's black S-10 Blazer and a revolver were missing from his home, a police report stated. ..Source..

Former Minister Fatally Stabbed in Prison Cell

6-14-1994 Oklahoma:

OKLAHOMA CITY - Less than a month after being removed from protective custody, a former Presbyterian minister serving a 40-year prison sentence for lewd molestation and rape was stabbed to death in his cell.

At least two inmates have been implicated in the stabbing death of Robert Bruce Bridgen, 60, who was found at 7 p.m. Sunday in his cell at Oklahoma State Reformatory in Granite.

He was pronounced dead on arrival at Elkview General Hospital in Hobart.

The two prisoners, who were not identified, and several other inmates also tied to the stabbing, were separated from the prison's general population shortly after the attack, prison spokesman Josh McCurdy said.

Bridgen originally was charged with 20 counts of lewd molestation and one count of rape by instrumentation stemming from acts involving girls age 4 to 14 who attended his Alva church.

He was convicted in June 1992 of eight counts of lewd molestation and one count of rape by instrumentation.

Trish States of Alva, whose daughter testified against Bridgen, said she was relieved at the news of the former minister's death. "I feel sorry for the family, don't get me wrong, but I'm glad Mr. Bridgen is gone because he can no longer do harm to any more children or any other innocent families," she said. "Right now I feel like whoever did this, I thank them for it because justice has been done."

Bridgen, who maintained his innocence, was appealing his conviction to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, said Ron W. Bittle, Bridgen's trial lawyer, of Alva. "The sad thing about this is I believe he had an excellent chance of getting a new trial," Bittle said.

McCurdy said at least two inmates entered Brigden's cell about 7 p.m. Sunday and stabbed him numerous times in the chest and legs. ..more.. by Barbara Hoberock