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A Hawaii anesthesiologist has been convicted of the lesser offense of tried manslaughter for allegedly making an attempt to kill his spouse on a cliffside hike final 12 months.
Gerhardt Konig, 47, was discovered responsible after a Honolulu jury deliberated for a day. The cost, tied to excessive psychological or emotional disturbance, carries a most sentence of 20 years.
Prosecutors stated Konig deliberate to kill his spouse, Arielle, throughout a birthday journey in March 2025, trying to push her off a cliff, stab her with a syringe and strike her with a rock earlier than two hikers who heard her cries for assist intervened.
His lawyer, Thomas Otake, confirmed plans to attraction.
The defendant testified that it was his spouse who first hit him with a rock, and he hit her again in self-defense.
Konig had a plan and backup plans for murdering his spouse, Arielle Konig, throughout a weekend journey to Honolulu for her birthday in March 2025, deputy prosecutor Joel Garner advised jurors in a closing assertion Tuesday. Konig tried to push her off a cliff, and when that didn’t work, he tried to stab her with a syringe full of an unknown substance.
And when that didn’t work, he grabbed the rock, Garner stated.
“Each backup plan ends in Arielle’s loss of life,” Garner stated, displaying the rock and photographs of her accidents.
The physician’s lawyer advised jurors Tuesday there have been no such plans, and he repeatedly sought to solid doubt on Arielle Konig’s account. Gerhardt Konig has pleaded not responsible to tried homicide, and he insists he was defending himself from his spouse, who he says attacked him with the rock first.
If Gerhardt Konig had wished to kill his spouse and had entry to a syringe in a distant space, lawyer Thomas Otake instructed, wouldn’t he have drugged her after which thrown her from the cliff, quite than having began a scuffle earlier than trying to fill the syringe as he was wrestling together with her?
“You’d use the syringe first,” Otake stated. “It is mindless.”
The trial began final month, practically a 12 months after Gerhadt and Arielle Konig went on a hike on the Pali Puka path in Honolulu that ended together with her bloodied and screaming that he had tried to kill her.
Their two younger sons stayed house on Maui whereas the Konigs had been on the journey. Close to a lookout providing sweeping views, Gerhardt Konig — upset about his spouse’s relationship with a coworker — attacked her, Garner stated. It was solely as a result of two different hikers interrupted the assault that he stopped, Garner stated.
The trial, with testimony livestreamed by Courtroom TV, has aired the couple’s marital issues main as much as the hike, together with their variations of what occurred on the path.
Gerhardt Konig testified that his spouse was having an affair, which he confirmed by unlocking her telephone whereas she slept. The connection, which Arielle Konig characterised as an “emotional affair” involving flirty messages with a coworker, got here up in the course of the hike.
Arielle Konig testified that her husband grabbed her and moved her towards the cliff’s edge, however she threw herself on the bottom in an try to carry on. He straddled her and had a syringe in his hand, she stated, however she batted it away. She bit his forearm and squeezed his testicles in an try and get him off her, she stated.
Her husband denied pushing her towards the sting and testified that she hit him with a rock on the facet of his face. He wrestled the rock away and hit her with it twice in self-defense, he stated.
Gerhardt Konig additionally denied having any syringes on the mountain or making an attempt to stab his spouse. His protection lawyer stated no syringe was discovered on the scene as a result of he by no means had one.
Otake stated Gerhardt Konig was not somebody who would attempt to commit homicide, however somebody who was scuffling with infidelity and making an attempt to do his greatest. Otake quoted from a heart-shaped birthday card Gerhardt Konig had written to his spouse, calling her “the guts of our household” and saying, “The children and I hit the jackpot with you.”
Gerhardt Konig testified that as he watched his spouse crawl away, he believed his marriage and profession had been over, and he determined to leap to his loss of life. However first, he known as his grownup son from a earlier marriage. The son advised authorities that his father stated he “tried to kill your stepmom” — a confession Gerhardt Konig denied having made.
Konig testified that he known as his son to say goodbye.
Throughout that decision, the defendant made no reference to having struck his spouse in self-defense, Garner stated.
He spent about eight hours hiding on the mountain earlier than deciding to return down, and even then, he tried to flee when confronted by police, Garner stated.
His spouse has since filed for divorce.
The nationwide home abuse helpline provides assist for girls on 0808 2000 247, or you possibly can go to the Refuge web site. There’s a devoted males’s recommendation line on 0808 8010 327. These within the US can name the home violence hotline on 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Different worldwide helplines might be discovered by way of www.befrienders.org
