HONOLULU (KHON2) — A Maui doctor accused of trying to murder his wife will remain behind bars. A judge denied bail for Gerhardt Konig on May 13, despite a plea from his defense attorney to set bail at a reasonable amount.
Konig has been charged with attempted murder and his attorney urged the court to set bail for his client at $100,000 to $200,000, saying Konig has no prior criminal record, has no access to his financial assets now that his wife filed for divorce and has no intention to flee.
“Anything to do with whether he’s a flight risk or a danger stems from the allegations in this case and of course, we all know he’s presumed innocent of all that,” said Thomas Otake, Konig’s attorney.
Konig’s defense team said the case is not as clear cut as it may seem. They argued he was a loving father, picked apart the state’s evidence and said witnesses in the case saw very little of what happened along that trail.
“The point being this is going to be a he said-she said trial,” Otake said.
But prosecutors insist Konig is dangerous saying he called his son to tell him what he’d done and hid from police after the alleged attack.
“First he told his son he tried to kill Arielle, that he tried to kill the victim in this case. Second, he gave his son the reason for why. that she’d been cheating on him. And third, he told his son he was going to turn off his phone to avoid the police,” said Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Joel Garner.
Prosecutors say Konig tried three different ways to kill his wife on a Nuuanu trial back in March. First, pushing her off a cliff, beating her with a rock the size and weight of a softball then tried injecting her with a syringe. The defense says no syringes were recovered at the scene.
Prosecutors say it’s even more alarming that the drug, Propofol, was recovered from his Maui home, indicating Konig had access to powerful anesthetic drugs.
“I do think the fact that the defendant has easy access and uncontrolled access to these types of drugs is a very relevant factor in his dangerousness in the future,” Garner said.
After hearing the arguments, the judge agreed with prosecutors that Konig is a danger to the community and denied setting bail.
Konig now remains in custody at OCCC. His trial was scheduled to begin the week of June 9.