The man accused of killing a Juneau jeweler on a hunting trip in Excursion Inlet is a former Arizona state legislator.<\/p>\n
Mark Anthony De Simone, 53, was a Democratic State House Representative<\/a> in the Arizona Legislature in 2007. He allegedly shot Juneau man Duilio Antonio \u201cTony\u201d Rosales twice in the head Sunday night and is being charged with first-degree murder.<\/p>\n [Widow pleads with accused murderer in court: ‘Why’?<\/a>]<\/p>\n De Simone resigned<\/a> from the Arizona Legislature in 2008 after he was arrested on charges related to domestic violence, according to The Arizona Republic.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a disgrace,\u201d said Mary Jo Pitzl, a reporter at The Arizona Republic. She\u2019s been with the newspaper for 35 years. She\u2019s a state government reporter and was covering the Legislature at the time of De Simone\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Democrats were celebrating their budget victory and they went out to party and I guess he had a little too much to drink. And when he got home \u2013 at least according to police accounts, he and his wife had a fight. He hit her. She called the police,\u201d Pitzl said on the phone Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n A July 2008 Arizona Republic article<\/a> reported that De Simone held his wife, Mali, down and punched her several times in the face and arms, according to allegations contained in a police report.<\/p>\n In another Republic article<\/a>, De Simone denied in a statement he did this and said \u201che was stepping down (from office) because of his children.\u201d He and his wife had two.<\/p>\n He plead not guilty to misdemeanor assault charges, according to the Republic. The charge was dropped, reported the New York Times<\/a> following his resignation, and he agreed to go to counseling.<\/p>\n As a legislator, De Simone represented a middle-class to upper middle-class district, Pitzl said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was known as a pro-business Democrat, which was part of his appeal to his district. He was a bar owner and, I think, first got prominence because he was active in opposing a ballot measure that ultimately did ban smoking in bars and restaurants,\u201d Pitzl said.<\/p>\n De Simone\u2019s LinkedIn profile<\/a> says he was the owner and operator of Hidden House Lounge and Bruno Mali\u2019s Caf\u00e9, which was located in Phoenix, Arizona, from 1990 to 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe was easy to talk to, very approachable, just sort of like a bartender,\u201d Pitzl said. She said De Simone\u2019s wife often visited him in his legislative office.<\/p>\n After he resigned, Pitzl said De Simone dropped out of public life and she didn\u2019t know what happened to him.<\/p>\n \u201cI ran into him a year or so later. He was out running around at the capitol and I asked him if he was thinking of ever running again and he said, \u2018Oh, maybe sometime, but this is not the time,\u2019 and that\u2019s the last I saw of him,\u201d Pitzl said.<\/p>\n She said she\u2019s shocked by the news of De Simone\u2019s murder charges.<\/p>\n \u201cHe came across as just sort of a nice guy. Nothing extraordinary. The most ink he ever got was because of the domestic violence problem,\u201d Pitzl said.<\/p>\n