Expect no gasps of surprise if Mark Hacking pleads guilty today. It appears that he has never intended to do anything otherwise.

   Witnesses pivotal to the prosecution's case were never contacted by defense investigators - a fundamental first step in establishing a trial defense in any case, let alone one in which the defendant faces life imprisonment.

   And, apparently content that Hacking would not put up a fight, prosecutors have not kept tabs on witnesses either.

   "No one has called us since early last fall," said Lisa Downs, co-owner of the furniture store where Hacking arrived to purchase a new mattress on July 19 - the morning he was calling friends and police to report his wife missing.

   One witness, who has since left the state, offered to give investigators a new address and phone number, but claims to never have been contacted in response.

   That, observers close to the case say, is a good indication that Hacking has always intended to plea guilty.

   If that is Hacking's resolution, it's one his father believes began shortly after he was jailed on suspicion of shooting his wife, Lori, as she slept and placing her body in a Dumpster near the hospital where he worked.

   After speaking to his jailed son in September, Douglas Hacking said Mark was "determined to do what is right - even if it costs him his life."

   Mark doesn't face the death penalty, as some family members initially thought he might. But Lori's brother says punishment should not factor into Mark's decision anyway.

   "If he really is accepting responsibility, then that's great - that's one step on the path he needs to take," Paul Soares told The Tribune Thursday, taking a moment away from dinner with family and friends at an Orem restaurant.

   Soares, who lives in Los Angeles, said he has not been told for sure that Mark will plead guilty today, "but it doesn't take a brain surgeon," he said. "He's not preparing for trial."

   He noted that both his mother and father were planning to be in the courtroom today. He lamented that they didn't hear Mark admit guilt in October, the last time they were all in court together.

   "I would have had a lot more respect if he had done it back then," Soares said.

   That hearing came shortly after Hacking attorney Gil Athay claimed to be pursuing numerous "possible defenses." Since then, however, Athay has failed to file any trial-related motions or submit questions to be answered by potential jurors in a case that prompted bold local newspaper headlines and attracted national TV coverage for weeks as Mark's lies about his past and future plans came to light.

   Mark's family said the lying finally came to an end when Mark confessed to his brothers that he had killed his wife.

   Though investigators took evidence from Mark's locker at the University Neuropsychiatric Institute and interviewed several of his co-workers, his supervisor - named as a witness in the murder charges - has not been contacted by the defense.

    Mary Talboys said no one from the prosecution has called her, either. "Not at all," she said.

   Athay and prosecutor Bob Stott are keeping quiet on the details of today's hearing.

   Greg Skordas, a former prosecutor who now frequently defends high-profile clients in Utah, said the absence of any such action on Athay's part is a good indication that Mark will plead guilty.

   "If the witnesses have not been contacted yet, there's a reason for that, and that is that they won't be called at all," Skordas said.

   The police officers who would be paramount to the prosecution's case do not appear to be gearing up for trial, either.

   At least nine officers involved in the investigation of Lori Hacking's murder were named on the same probable cause statement as Talboys. But Salt Lake City police spokesman Dwayne Baird said he's heard nothing about any officers preparing to testify in the high-profile case.

   "They might get a subpoena in the morning for that afternoon," Baird said. "That's not necessarily a safe thing to do."

   And though he's testified in many cases, Baird said he couldn't remember a time in his career in which that had ever happened to him.

   Further, Baird said, it isn't easy to find people at the last moment. "People aren't nailed to floor of their house," he said.

   Baird said witnesses and police officers would be necessary to make the case. "They're not going to put him away on public opinion," he said.

    But Sione Palauni, also named as a witness in the probable cause statement, says no one has contacted him in preparation for trial.

    That leaves only one likely outcome. And many expect it to occur at 2 p.m. today in the Matheson County Courthouse: A change of plea to guilty.

   mlaplante@sltrib.com