The Hilo man accused of killing his grandparents, Big Island Delights owners Jeffrey and Carla Takamine, was found mentally unfit to proceed to trial.
An order filed Friday found Joshua Ho unfit and ordered that he remain under the care and custody of the Department of Health director.
A panel of mental health professionals found him unfit to be tried.
Ho was present Thursday by video for a fitness examination before Judge Robert Kim in the Kona Division of the 3rd Circuit Court. (Two Hilo judges recused themselves.)
The judge ruled him unfit and scheduled the next fitness hearing for Sept. 7.
Court documents show that Ho’s mother told police he has schizophrenia, and was having an episode Jan. 16 at the family home and was holding a knife after the stabbings.
Family members heard things being knocked about and screams at about 6:30 a.m.
Ho, then 21, was standing naked outside the bedroom with the knife, covered in blood.
Ho’s brother struggled with him to take the knife away and sustained multiple lacerations to his head. The brother and father held him down until police arrived.
Police found the Takamines, both 68, dead with multiple stab wounds in their bedroom at their Panaewa home.
The 21-year-old was indicted Jan. 26 on one count of first- degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted second-degree murder.
At that time the judge granted a motion to suspend court proceedings to allow Ho to undergo a three-member panel examination.
On Feb. 2 an order committed Ho to the custody of the Department of Health director.
He was ordered to return March 28 for a fitness examination. For a variety of reasons, the deadlines were extended for the doctors’ reports, and the court date was eventually moved to Thursday.
