A Hawaii anesthesiologist has been discovered responsible of making an attempt to kill his spouse by bashing her head with a rock throughout a hike for her birthday final 12 months.
A jury in Honolulu convicted Gerhardt Konig Wednesday on the lesser cost of tried manslaughter tied to allegations he attacked his spouse Arielle Konig after a dialogue about her emotional affair with one other man whereas they have been traversing the cliff-side Pali Puka path on Oahu on March 24, 2025.
Gerhardt had been charged with second-degree tried homicide — however the choose gave jurors the choice of convicting on a lowered offense earlier than deliberations, which lasted greater than eight hours.
The jury, which started deliberations Tuesday afternoon, was instructed that if they may not convict Gerhardt of tried homicide, they may as a substitute take into account tried manslaughter, first-degree tried assault, or second- or third-degree assault.
Gerhardt, who put his head in his arms when the decision was learn, faces as much as 20 years in jail for the cost of tried manslaughter primarily based on excessive psychological or emotional disturbance.
Arielle testified that Gerhardt chillingly mentioned, “F–ok you, you’re finished” earlier than making an attempt to throw her off a cliff, making an attempt to inject her with a syringe and finally selecting up a stone and whacking her on her brow as she lay combating on the bottom.
The 37-year-old mom and nuclear engineer was saved when two girls heard the scuffle and intervened, discovering Gerhardt straddling a bloodied and screaming Arielle.
Throughout closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutor Joel Garner alleged that Gerhardt wielded the rock “so laborious that items of rock broke off into Arielle’s scalp.”
“The one factor that obtained him to cease was being caught red-handed,” Garner argued.
Jurors additionally heard from Gerhardt, 47, who took the stand in his personal protection to assert Arielle began the bodily altercation by making an attempt to push him off the cliff as they took a selfie earlier than wrestling him to the bottom and hitting him on the top with a rock first. He claimed he hit her again in self-defense.
“She retains yelling, and she or he grabs my wrists and throws herself on the bottom and pulls me down along with her,” testified Konig, in response to a report by KHON2. “I’m thrashing, and I get each arms free, and I’m making an attempt to get her to let go of my testicles, after which she hits me with a rock.”
He additionally claimed he didn’t have a syringe on him on the time.
Protection legal professional Thomas Otake accused prosecutors of producing a principle after which selectively gathering proof to again it up.
“They’re undeterred by the proof,” he blasted throughout his closing arguments, claiming the “he mentioned, she mentioned” case is riddled with “cheap doubt.”
“It doesn’t matter what it reveals, they’re going to spin it of their favor. They got here up with a principle they usually went to seek for info to help it.”
Throughout the three-week trial, prosecutors argued that Gerhardt was lashing out after Arielle knowledgeable him that she may need to go on a piece journey with Jeff Miller, her co-worker who Gerhardt caught her having an “emotional affair” with.
After Gerhardt broke into Arielle’s telephone in December and located three months’ value of Whatsapp messages with Miller, the pair stopped having intercourse and tried to save lots of their marriage, in response to trial testimony.
Arielle painted an image of a controlling and needy Gerhardt, who demanded she sleep with him
“each different day,” a request she didn’t need to fulfill.
“Gerhardt actually needed contact, bodily contact, a whole lot of cuddling, and any refusal of that will be me withdrawing,” she testified final month.
Gerhardt’s son and Arielle’s stepson, Emile Konig, additionally testified as a prosecution witness, claiming his dad known as him on FaceTime and confessed what he’d finished.
Gerhardt advised Emile that Arielle “had been dishonest on him and that he tried to kill her,” jurors heard from the son.
Arielle has filed for divorce.
With Submit wires
