San Antonio Symphony News and Archive

Musician, artist deaths probed




By Kate Hunger and Dan R. Goddard

from the San Antonio Express News 12/16/98



Driven by jealous rage, a well-known local artist told his mother Monday he wanted to harm a prominent San Antonio Symphony musician who was dating his estranged wife.

Later that day, both men were found shot to death minutes apart in what police are investigating as a murder-suicide.

Mark Horner, 25, principal trombonist with the San Antonio Symphony, was gunned down at his home in the 300 block of Thorman Place.

A short time later, Alamo Heights police found the body of artist Mike Pogue, 47, slumped in the front seat of his classic 1958 Chevy Impala outside his home in the 300 block of Kokomo Street. A .45-caliber handgun was found next to him on the seat.

In interviews Tuesday with police, friends and associates of both men, a picture emerged of Pogue, sick with jealousy over his wife's relationship with Horner.

Susan Pogue, 30, said she had separated from her husband several months ago. Although she had known Horner for some time, she said she did not become involved with him until after separating from her husband.

Friends said she had asked for a divorce on Thanksgiving.

"I feel like I have been doubly widowed," she said.

In art circles, Pogue was known for outrageous, humorous, brilliantly colored sculptural cartoons influenced by Mad magazine, tattoos and "Big Daddy" Roth hot rod drawings.

He created the "Chili Man" logo for Taco Cabana, and recently was commissioned to create a $10,000 public art piece for the Convention Center expansion. His work is currently featured at the Edith Baker Gallery in Dallas.

Horner, 25, hailed by his colleagues as perhaps the best trombonist in the country, was pronounced dead at Brooke Army Medical Center at 8 p.m.

Despite a promise to his wife that he "wouldn't do anything crazy," a man resembling Pogue rang the bell at Horner's home about 7:15 p.m. Monday, as Horner and his neighbor and symphony colleague, Stephen Dumaine, were finishing dinner.

"Is Mark around?" the man asked Dumaine, who answered the door.

Dumaine later said the man on the breezeway looked familiar, although he had no reason to be suspicious.

At that moment, Horner walked up to see who was at the door. Gunfire erupted and Horner fell bleeding onto the green tile floor, shot in the abdomen and thigh.

"(The man) stepped up the steps and shot him," Dumaine said in an interview outside Horner's house, across the street from his own home.

The two musicians had known each other since high school.

"I tried to wrestle the gun from him," said Dumaine, who said he ran and hid behind a neighbor's truck when the shooter turned the gun on him. "He shot at me at least once."

Dumaine, who also knew Susan Pogue, said the man resembled her descriptions of Mike Pogue.

Witnesses reported seeing the gunman drive away from the one-story house in a black 1958 Chevy Impala, according to a police report.

Minutes later, Alamo Heights police found Pogue dead in his car. They later reported finding a suicide note inside Pogue's house.

"Mike said in the note that he loved me and he didn't want to lose me. He did it to hurt me. I feel really sad about what has happened, but I'm also really angry at Mike. He had no reason to shoot Mark."

Pogue had only recently learned of Horner's relationship with his wife, friends said.

Pogue's mother said he told her he wanted to "knock (Horner's) front teeth out so he could never play the trombone again."

She said her son hadn't slept in days and wasn't "thinking rationally."

The violent deaths of both men stunned San Antonio's arts community.

Members of the symphony say Horner will be sorely missed.

"In addition to being one of the top trombone players in the country, he was a phenomenal human being," said David Schillhammer, executive director of the symphony. "You could hear his gentle spirit in his playing that was unparalleled. He was such an important part of our family."

Horner joined the symphony in 1995 following his graduation from the prestigious Julliard School.

"It's not going to sound the same," Dumaine said. "It will be good, but it won't be the same without Mark."

Dumaine met Horner when they were in high school and played in the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. Both went on to Julliard, where Horner studied under Joseph Alessi, principal trombonist of the New York Philharmonic.

Horner was to have performed with the San Antonio Brass in the symphony's annual Christmas Serenade concert this weekend.

Friends and colleagues recalled Horner as a promising talent who was gentle and down to earth.

Horner's funeral will be held in his native Bar Harbor, Maine, where his family lives, Dumaine said.

Artists knew Pogue as a happy-go-lucky man with many friends. Though he described himself as "a mean old hippie," he was admired for his weird sense of humor.

His friend, Steve Brudniak of Austin, noted: "Although a lot of people in San Antonio liked him and his work, I think some of the big collectors and curators passed him over. Maybe now, they'll go back and take a second look, even if it is too late."

Funeral arrangements for both men were pending Tuesday. Schillhammer said symphony officials are planning a memorial for Horner.

"This is an overwhelming loss that we cannot begin to overcome," he said.



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