A Mechanicsburg man accused of killing his friend Sunday told a witness he shot the victim after an argument, according to new details from court records released Friday.
The statement to a neighbor, who had driven by, and seen the victim’s body face down in the front yard, is noteworthy because Richard King Jr. offered a different explanation for the shooting to Mechanicsburg police when they arrived later.
The witness told police he stopped after seeing the body and checked on the man. That’s when King came out of the home with a cell phone in his hand and King explained he had gotten into an argument with the man “and shot him,” according to court records.
King, 35, who worked as a law clerk for the president judge in Cumberland County, was charged with criminal homicide in the killing of Zach Gula, 35, also of Mechanicsburg.
King told police he shot Gula after Gula attacked him, but King had no injuries, police said, beyond a scratch on his nose visible in his mug shot.
The newly released court records also revealed police found a Glock handgun under King’s bed with five rounds and one casing inside, as well as two Glock boxes with serial numbers.
But one of the guns was missing and police could not find it at King’s home or car. Police wanted to find it to test to ensure it was not the weapon used in the killing.
Investigators also found two loaded magazines and a box of ammunition under the bed and an empty gun holster next to the bed.
Police found two rifles, a shotgun, two additional holsters, and various boxes of ammunition and practice shooting targets throughout his house.
The new details were included in three applications for search warrants by police and lists of what they found inside King’s home, car and backyard shed after the killing, which was reported about 2:20 p.m. Sunday in the 400 block of E. Marble Street.
The first search warrant of his home was served at 3:46 p.m. Sunday, about an hour after the killing was discovered.
Three hours later, police served a search warrant to get swabs of King’s hands to test for gunshot residue and to confiscate the clothes he was wearing, which included tan shorts with blood on them, a black and gold collared shirt and flip flops.
The day after the killing, police applied for a third search warrant to return to King’s home to search his locked backyard shed, rear deck area, shrubbery and car to try to find the missing Glock handgun. But police did not find anything in the car or shed during the 3:46 p.m. search Monday, according to the search warrant return filed with the judge.
During the original search of his home, police recovered two cell phones, which they plan to check to see if he had called anyone after the shooting, among other things. Police also collected 20 swabs of what appeared to be blood from a trail that started in the living room near the sofa and extended outside on the front porch and into the yard where Gula had collapsed.
Gula had known King since they graduated together from Mechanicsburg high school in 2008. Gula lived in an apartment less than one mile from King.
The men were hanging out and drinking on Sunday, according to Gula’s friend Phil Holbert,
who said Gula called him that day and wanted Holbert to join them.
Holbert said he declined because they sounded intoxicated and Holbert didn’t care for King. Holbert received a series of missed calls from Gula, then a final call where he said he heard them arguing. The phone went dead, and minutes later, the shooting happened.
Police arrived at 2:23 p.m.
and found King sitting in the grass beside Gula’s body, police wrote in a homicide affidavit. Gula had been shot near his right collarbone.
King told police he’d shot the man with a handgun. Police said they found a Glock handgun in King’s bedroom, with a still-loaded magazine and spent casing stuck in the ejection port from a “stovepipe” malfunction.
The killing was the first in the borough in at least 20 years, according to the police chief.
