Despite Desmond Kekahuna’s numerous suicide attempts and hearing voices, an Oahu Circuit judge was not convinced he was suffering from a physical or mental disease, disorder or defect when in 2023 he used a car to plow into a 37-year-old woman pushing her 6-month-old girl in a stroller through the Mililani Walmart parking lot.
Following the jury-waived trial held Nov. 20, Judge Kevin Souza took the matter under advisement to review all the records and files in evidence.
Souza rendered his guilty verdict Friday on one count of second-degree attempted murder and one count of second-degree assault, the latter charge for the beating of a good Samaritan at the scene.
Kekahuna will be sentenced April 10. Second-degree attempted murder is punishable by life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.
In the gallery sat the victim, Kristelle Taliulu, a mother of five, in a wheelchair, missing her left leg as a result of the collision. She was surrounded by her family, including the now 2-year-old daughter, who was in the stroller Taliulu was pushing Feb. 1, 2023.
The baby was spared from injury, unlike her mother, who was dragged 15 feet.
The trial was not about whether he struck Taliulu with the red Honda Fit he was driving, then got out and beat her with a tire iron, and struck the 40-year-old man who came to her aid with the same tire iron.
Those facts were stipulated to by the state, represented by Deputy Prosecutor Kyle Mesa, and Kekahuna’s court-appointed attorney, Aaron Wills.
Instead, Wills attempted to have Kekahuna acquitted by what is commonly known as the “insanity” defense, asserting he lacked the penal responsibility for his actions.
The judge found that the defense failed to meet its burden of proof that Kekahuna was, at the time of the offense, suffering from a physical or mental disease, disorder or defect and that he lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.
Defense witness Dr. Martin Blinder, an expert witness on forensic psychiatry, met with Kekahuna three times and submitted reports each time. He testified at trial that Kekahuna suffered from post-methamphetamine encephelopathy — a recognizable disease — at the time he committed the offenses, which has similarities to schizophrenia.
He also testified he was not under the influence of illicit substances at the time of the incident and that even though Kekahuna stopped using, he would continue to suffer from the effects of the disease.
“While this is not a recognized disorder by the DSM5, the Hawaii Supreme Court has recognized this as a colorable diagnosis in State v. Abio,” Souza said.
Souza said Blinder has “testified many times before this court, and the court certainly respects his opinion on this issue.”
However, the judge pointed out that Blinder admitted he did not review certain portions of the police report, the police body- worn camera footage or the surveillance video of the incident “to make a determination as to whether those pieces of evidence lined up and comported with his diagnosis.”
The judge found that Blinder did not substantiate his findings with physical proof with testing that Kekahuna had physical brain damage due to long-term use of methamphetamine and other drugs.
“Blinder also admitted that had he been more keenly aware of defendant’s alternative and evolving explanation of his conduct on the date of the incident, that may have caused him to rethink his diagnosis,” the judge said.
Mesa relied on the testimony of two other mental health experts, which Souza said he found credible.
They both found that “other than the presence of some possible depression and certainly borderline personality disorder traits, the defendant, Mr. Kekahuna, was not suffering from a mental disease, disorder or defect on the date of the incident, and there was no clinical diagnosis to speak of,” the judge said.
Forensic psychology expert Brenda Bauer-Smith and psychologist Steven Taketa found Kekahuna had a history of paranoia and hearing voices. But “those voices that Mr. Kekahuna was hearing were directly attributable to his use of illicit substances and alcohol during that time and were not due to a psychological disorder,” the judge said.
Taketa said Kekahuna was not suffering from any mental illness during the one time he interviewed him.
The judge then addressed whether Kekahuna, at the time of the offenses, lacked the capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.
Bauer-Smith said his conduct is consistent with someone with borderline personality traits and acting out of aggression or frustration and not out of the commands of some mental disease, disorder or defect, the judge said.
He said the two psychologists found the body-worn camera video showed Kekahuna displayed no disorganization of thought, or active hallucinations or any sort of response to internal stimuli, that he was responsive, but his behavior changed after he was approached by police and became combative.
The psychologists testified Kekahuna denied doing anything wrong when police questioned him, suggesting he understood he did something illegal.
Kekahuna, when recalling the incident, said he knew attempted murder and assault were against the law, and said if a police officer were present, he would not have done what he did.
The state’s expert witnesses said Kekahuna’s explanations were self-serving and evolved, showed signs of malingering, and that he seemed to make things up, giving multiple explanations for what occurred, blaming car problems and being chased.
The body-worn camera footage showed he intentionally drove into the victim, and reflected aggression, not fear, they said.
