Insanity acquits man in death of vacuum salesman
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
A man accused of killing a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman in Waialua three years ago was acquitted of second-degree murder charges today by Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall on the basis of insanity.
Michael Lawrence, left, and his defense attorney, William Jameson, hear Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall acquit Lawrence of second-degree murder charges on the basis of insanity today.
Crandall found that Michael Lawrence was suffering from a mental disease when he killed Melchor Tabag on March 27, 1999, after Tabag went to the home of Lawrence's family in Waialua to try to sell a vacuum cleaner.
Lawrence, 26, did not dispute prosecution claims during the jury-waived trial that he struck Tabag with a hammer, dismembered his body and loaded the body parts into empty dog food bags before disposing of the bags at a city refuse station in Hale'iwa.
But Crandall ruled yesterday that Lawrence's mental illness prevented him from understanding that what he was doing was wrong. She ordered him to be moved from the O'ahu Community Correctional Center within 72 hours to the Hawai'i State Hospital in Kane'ohe, with instructions that he be kept there until he is determined to be no longer mentally ill and not a threat to the community.
