Vista

A Vista Municipal Court judge on Monday denied bail to Mark Phelps, the Vista man charged with wounding one sheriff’s deputy and attacking another in separate shoot-outs.

Judge Runston Maino said that an affidavit describing the incidents convinced him that Phelps, 27, would be a danger to society if released.

An Oceanside Police Department arrest report from March, 1986, that quoted Phelps as saying he had lost respect for the system and “now it’s time to kill some cops” was also a factor in his decision, but the recent shoot-outs were the most important reasons, Maino said.

“They wanted to have a deputy testify to how (Phelps) has been acting in jail, but I didn’t see that that was material,” Maino said.

Phelps is accused of shooting Deputy James Bennetts after Bennetts tried to pull him over in Vista on July 31. Phelps sped off and ambushed Bennetts, shooting him once in the shoulder and once in the chest, authorities said.

The bulletproof vest Bennetts was wearing probably saved his life, doctors said.

Phelps surrendered after a shoot-out with another deputy two days after the first incident.