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IDAHO FALLS — An Idaho man accused of shooting a 23-year-old 17 times testified on Friday that he "blacked out" during the killing.
Mark Bent, 43, is charged with the first-degree murder of Nikolas Todd Bird, 23, on Sept. 3, 2022. Shortly after the shooting, Bent reportedly admitted on Facebook to planning the killing.
Idaho District Judge Michael Whyte is presiding over the trial, which is expected to go to the jury on Monday.
Bent took the stand Friday afternoon, defending himself against the murder allegation. According to Bent, he worked as an automotive technician for over 20 years. He came to Idaho Falls in Feb. 2021 for a job at UPS in Idaho Falls.
In 2021, he started going to car meets, where he was introduced to a Facebook page for "The Castaways Car Club," which he joined.
Bent said he met Bird, the founder of the club, at a car meet in May. They spent time together in the club, but Bent says he left because the others in the club were younger and "wild."
They participated in "illegal street racing, getting misdemeanor tickets for excessive speeding," Bent said, and one member, who was not named, was allegedly a fugitive from another state. Bent said he did not want to jeopardize his job, so he left the club in June.
'Back and forth arguing'
Bent eventually messaged Bird to tell him that he wanted to leave the club because of the alleged illegal activities.
A few days after he left the club, Bent said he was removed from the Facebook group. He asked Bird why he was removed, and he said that someone told him that Bent was an undercover police officer, which Bent denied.
"It wasn't peaceful or anything, it was back and forth arguing. I asked him if he knew anything about these rumors, and he said no," said Bent. "Then he said someone received a message that I was working with undercover police from Washington. It was just accusations."
Bent said he contacted police in June or July to report threats and being doxxed online by "random people in the car community."
"For example, I was driving East on Sunnyside one day, and someone posted it," said Bent. "I felt that was jeopardizing my safety, so I called the police."
In December, Bent said he contacted police again because "people started actually looking up my address and telling me they knew where I lived, and saying they were gonna come over and harm me."
According to Bent, he bought a house in Pocatello in July 2022 because he was concerned about people from the car group finding out where he lived after he moved.
"I was very overweight. I was eating very poorly. I was drinking alcohol regularly. I was smoking a lot of marijuana. I was just lazy. I just generally was not good," said Bent. "I was taking anti-depressants but I was drinking, so I had depression, anxiety, paranoia."
When he bought the new house, Bent said he bought a camera system and owned a previous Ring doorbell system with indoor cameras to protect him from people in the car group. But according to Bent, nobody had ever threatened him in person.
'I was angry at him'
Eventually, Bent said he quit UPS because others were quitting too, and his workload was too high. On the day of the shooting, Bent said he woke up at a friend's house and they decided to go look for off-road trails to ride on.
Afterward, he went back to Pocatello and stopped at a liquor store to buy a 750 ml bottle of Jägermeister. He then got food at Wendy's and went home around 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. After he ate, Bent said he put the alcohol in a bottle with a rockstar energy drink and drove to Idaho Falls between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Bent said he ended up in Bird's neighborhood and was still drinking alcohol at this point.
He reportedly saw Bird's car, parked his truck, finished his drink, and looked on his phone to "see what was going on on Facebook." He said he then got out of his truck and walked around, eventually breaking Bird's passenger side mirror on his car.
"I was angry at him," said Bent. "He threatened me, he looked up my address, he posted my address on the internet. He posted where I worked and where I lived on national Facebook pages with thousands of members."
Bird says he continued walking around, and eventually saw Bird in his car. Bird started the car and went to leave, but then noticed that his mirror was broken.
"He got out and he pulled his phone out and took a picture of it," said Bent. "I was standing on the passenger side of my truck, and when I saw him, I didn't do anything at first, I didn't really know what to think or do. When he was posting, he had his phone up and he was typing something. It reminded me of everything that was going on on social media, and the threats and harassment, slander and rumors and something just took over me."
Bent said he then drew his gun and "after that I don't remember, I blacked out."
