The jurors in the Christopher Deedy murder retrial will have the option to consider finding the U.S. State Department special agent guilty of manslaughter instead of murder during their deliberations next week.
State Circuit Judge Karen Ahn told the opposing lawyers in the case Friday that she is going to tell the jury that they can consider manslaughter as well as assault. However, because both sides objected to including assault in the jury instructions, Ahn said, "I’m going to think about it a little bit more." The instructions she approved Friday contain options for both manslaughter and assault.
The jurors will return to court Tuesday to hear the instructions and closing arguments.
Deedy, 30, is on trial for murder for fatally shooting 23-year-old Kollin Elderts in a Waikiki McDonald’s restaurant in November 2011. The Washington, D.C.-based federal agent was in Honolulu to provide security for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.
This is Deedy’s second trial on the charge. His first one last year ended in a mistrial because the jurors were not able to reach a unanimous verdict on either guilt of murder or acquittal.
Legal observers and Elderts’ family criticized the prosecutor for not pursuing a manslaughter option and Ahn for not providing it.
Defense lawyer Thomas Otake argued Friday that Deedy should not have to face manslaughter in this second trial because Ahn made a finding in the first one that providing the jury that option wasn’t warranted. He said that finding, in effect, was an acquittal. Ahn rejected Otake’s argument.
Ahn said there was little evidence in the first trial to support manslaughter based on reckless conduct. She said there was more evidence presented in the second trial to support the charge.
She also said interpretation of the law has changed "rather dramatically" since the first trial. The Hawaii Supreme Court overturned convictions she had handed down in two other cases for not giving those juries the option to consider lesser charges than for what the defendants were convicted.
As they did in the first trial, both sides oppose letting the jury consider manslaughter based on reckless conduct.
Ahn is giving the jury the option to consider manslaughter because Deedy may have been suffering from an extreme mental or emotional disturbance, or EMED. She said evidence presented in trial could lead the jury to infer that Deedy was angry, stressed and scared when he shot Elderts.
Prosecutor Janice Futa said based on another recent Supreme Court opinion, she supports letting the jury consider manslaughter based on EMED.
Otake opposed, saying Deedy didn’t even assert EMED as a defense.
One of Ahn’s convictions the state Supreme Court overturned was for manslaughter. The defendant was charged with murder, but the jury found him guilty of the lesser charge. The Supreme Court said Ahn should have given the jurors the option to consider assault, as the defense lawyer had requested.
Ahn refused to give an assault instruction because the defendant’s action resulted in death. The Supreme Court said the defendant’s intent, and not the result of his action, dictates what crimes a jury can consider. The defendant testified that he intended to hurt but not kill the victim.
Based on that opinion, Ahn says she is also giving an assault instruction to the Deedy jury.
Otake objected and asked Ahn why she wants to do that.
Ahn said, "It’s not that I want to give it. It’s that I have to give it. The Supreme Court (justices), they’re the boss, OK. And I have to follow what they say."
Deedy testified that when he shot Elderts, it was to stop the threat, to kill — not injure him.
Ahn said Deedy also said twice that when he shot Elderts, he thought he was going to kill or seriously injure Elderts.
She told the lawyers from both sides she will let them know Monday whether she will keep the assault option in the jury instructions.
