The jury is deliberating within the trial of a Hawaii physician accused of making an attempt to kill his spouse on a mountain climbing path.
Dr. Gerhardt Konig, 47, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree tried homicide. Prosecutors allege the anesthesiologist attacked his spouse, Arielle Konig, close to a cliff whereas on the Pali Puka Path on Oahu on March 24, 2025, by pushing her close to the sting after which beating her a number of occasions with a rock.
The protection, in the meantime, has alleged that Arielle Konig attacked her husband first, and that he hit her with the rock in self-defense.
Each Gerhardt Konig and his spouse testified throughout the three-week trial in Honolulu, presenting these broadly differing accounts of what occurred on the hike.
Gerhardt Konig seems in court docket earlier than closing arguments in his tried homicide trial, April 7, 2026, in Honolulu.
Mengshin Lin/AP
Prosecutor Joel Garner instructed jurors in his closing argument that the proof proves past an affordable doubt that Gerhardt Konig meant to kill his spouse that day on the difficult, slender and steep Pali Puka Path by pushing her off the cliff.
“One push is all it could tackle this path,” Garner mentioned. “One push, and it is a tragic accident.”
When that alleged plan did not work, Garner argued that the defendant then tried to inject her with a syringe earlier than in the end attacking her with a rock.
“The defendant swung this rock so arduous that items of rock broke off into Arielle’s scalp,” Garner mentioned.
Prosecutor Joel Garner delivers his closing argument, exhibiting the rock he mentioned was used within the alleged assault, throughout Gerhardt Konig’s tried homicide trial in Honolulu, April 7, 2026.
Pool by way of ABC Information
The prosecutor alleged that Gerhardt Konig got here up with the plan to keep away from a expensive divorce.
Garner mentioned Arielle Konig’s “easy” and “coherent” testimony was corroborated by the bloody proof on the scene, the “severity” of her accidents, digital proof and the testimony of different witnesses — together with two girls who stumbled on the couple within the midst of the alleged assault.
“The one factor that obtained him to cease was being caught red-handed,” Garner mentioned.
Garner argued that Gerhardt Konig’s testimony, in the meantime, was “unbelievable” and “full of contradictions,” and that the defendant’s account of his spouse attacking him with the rock “does not make sense.”
The prosecutor juxtaposed images of Gerhardt Konig’s bruised face with Arielle Konig’s bloodied one which have been taken within the wake of the incident.
“The concept that these accidents have been brought on by the identical rock — fully unbelievable,” Garner mentioned.
Garner additionally pushed again towards Gerhardt Konig’s testimony that he solely hit his spouse two occasions, citing the extent of her accidents.
“He hit her time and again and time and again, and he solely instructed you two occasions,” Garner mentioned.
Throughout his closing argument, protection lawyer Thomas Otake mentioned there’s “cheap doubt throughout this case,” referring to it as “he mentioned, she mentioned.”
“They’re undeterred by the proof,” Otake mentioned of the prosecutors. “It does not matter what it exhibits, they’ll spin it of their favor. They got here up with a idea they usually went to seek for information to help it.”
He argued there was no plan for the defendant to kill his spouse and reread the birthday card that Gerhardt Konig wrote to his spouse for her birthday the day of the hike — through which he wrote partly, “You are the guts of our household.”
“You do not write a letter like this in the event you’re planning to kill any individual two hours later,” Otake mentioned.
He disputed the alleged plan outlined by the prosecutor.
“Why on the planet, in the event you carry a syringe to incapacitate somebody to make it simpler to throw them off the cliff, why would the syringe be Plan B? It might be Plan A,” Otake mentioned.
He additionally questioned why Arielle Konig’s testimony was largely unemotional, save for when she learn the birthday card from her husband, and argued that her testimony was “not dependable.”
“You can not get emotional over a made-up story that did not occur if you began the combat,” Otake mentioned.
If the jurors are unable to search out Gerhardt Konig responsible of second-degree tried homicide, they’ll think about whether or not he’s responsible of tried manslaughter based mostly upon excessive psychological or emotional disturbance, first-degree tried assault, second-degree assault or third-degree assault.
Arielle Konig testifies throughout her husband’s tried homicide trial in Honolulu, March 24, 2026.
Pool by way of ABC Information
Whereas on the stand throughout the trial, Arielle Konig testified that the 2 had traveled to Oahu from their house in Maui to have fun her birthday. She mentioned they’d been engaged on repairing their marriage after her husband discovered what she characterised as “flirty” WhatsApp messages between her and a colleague in December 2024 in what she mentioned was an “emotional affair.”
Arielle Konig testified that throughout the hike, her husband pushed her towards the sting of the cliff. As they wrestled on the bottom with him on high, pinning her down, he produced a syringe and vial, she mentioned.
She additional testified that her husband proceeded to beat her with a rock as many as 10 occasions, and that she believed he was making an attempt to knock her unconscious with a purpose to drag her over the sting of the cliff.
Arielle Konig testified that she fought again by biting her husband’s forearm and pleaded with him, saying, “You possibly can’t do it,” and that “our youngsters will probably be orphans — you may go to jail and I will be useless.”
“He is saying, ‘You are executed. We’re executed with you. We do not want you anymore. You are executed. You are executed,'” she instructed the court docket.
Arielle Konig testified that she yelled, “He is making an attempt to kill me,” and screamed for assist, and two feminine hikers occurred upon them. One of many hikers instructed a 911 operator, “Somebody’s at the moment being attacked on the highest of Pali Puka. There is a man making an attempt to kill her,” in accordance with audio of the decision performed in court docket.
Prosecutors confirmed photographs of Arielle Konig’s bloodied face following the incident. She testified that she crawled away from her husband and was helped down the remainder of the path by the 2 girls. She mentioned she was handled at a hospital for “extreme complicated scalp lacerations” and confirmed the court docket scarring on her scalp.
Gerhardt Konig testified in his personal protection over two days, sustaining that he by no means meant to harm his spouse and acted in self-defense when he struck her with the rock.
He instructed the court docket that his spouse pushed him close to the sting after they obtained into an argument about her affair, and that she hit him with a rock first whereas they struggled on the bottom. He admitted to hitting her with the rock whereas on high of her, saying he struck her twice, although he denied having any syringes or making an attempt to tug her towards the cliff’s edge.
Gerhardt Konig testified that he felt suicidal after the incident.
“I simply felt hopeless at that time by way of every little thing,” he mentioned. “I felt horrified about what I did to her, that I had brought on this to her, that I had resorted to violence towards my spouse, the one that I really like probably the most on the planet. And I simply sort of felt hopeless by way of our relationship, too.”
Shortly after the incident, Gerhardt Konig testified, he made a FaceTime name to his 20-year-old son from his prior marriage, Emile Konig, to say goodbye.
His son testified in regards to the FaceTime name throughout the trial. Requested by the prosecutor to recount what his father mentioned throughout the name, Emile Konig responded, “That he wouldn’t be making it again to Maui and to take excellent care of the youthful youngsters, and that Ari, my stepmom, had been dishonest on him, and that he tried to kill her.”
“Throughout that decision, the following plan that he mentioned was to leap off the cliff,” Emile Konig testified, including that his father mentioned he was “on the finish of his rope.”
Gerhardt Konig testifies throughout his tried homicide trial in Honolulu, April 2, 2026.
Pool by way of ABC Information
Gerhardt Konig pushed again towards his son’s testimony and denied making any confession. He instructed the court docket that what he mentioned throughout the name was, “She mentioned I attempted to kill her.”
Gerhardt Konig was arrested following an hourslong manhunt, prosecutors mentioned.
Arielle Konig filed for divorce in Could 2025, searching for full custody of the couple’s two younger youngsters.
Gerhardt Konig, who labored as an anesthesiologist on Maui, has been in jail since his arrest. Following his arrest, Maui Well being mentioned his medical employees privileges at Maui Memorial Medical Middle have been suspended pending investigation.
