Waialua killer acquitted
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
A man charged with killing a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman whose body was never found was acquitted of second-degree murder charges yesterday on the basis of insanity.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Circuit Judge Virginia 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 parents in Waialua to try to sell a vacuum cleaner.
Nina Tran, left, and Rosalino Jacintho, family members of victim Melchor Tabag, react after hearing the verdict. Tabag, a vacuum cleaner salesman, was killed by Michael Lawrence on March 27, 1999.
Insanity acquittals in murder cases are rare in Hawai'i, and yesterday's decision stunned members of Tabag's family, who burst into sobs after the verdict was announced.
Later, in the hallway outside the courtroom, Tabag's sisters Rosalino Jacintho and Elesita Crisotomo shouted at defense attorneys in the case, "It is not fair, it is not fair!"
Dennis Potts, an attorney representing Tabag's family in a civil lawsuit against Lawrence and his mother, said Tabag's survivors "are devastated" by the acquittal.
"They have no body, no grave to visit and no way to bring closure," Potts said.
He said Tabag's sisters and parents cannot understand why "this totally senseless act happened."
"Melchor Tabag was simply trying to sell a vacuum cleaner," Potts said. "He walked into that house and never walked out again."
Lawrence, 26, did not dispute prosecution claims during the jury-waived trial that he struck Tabag, 41, 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 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.
William Jameson, a state deputy public defender who represented Lawrence, said he sympathized with the victim's family but said he was pleased with the verdict given the severity of Lawrence's mental illness. He said Lawrence was diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.
Michael Lawrence claims aliens told him to kill 100 people
According to testimony at his trial, Lawrence told mental health experts who examined him that aliens had contacted him and told him to kill 100 people.
"I don't think Michael would have cared one way or another about the verdict," Jameson said. "I am pleased the judge found him legally insane, now he can get the treatment he needs." Jameson said if Lawrence "was not as ill as he was, he never would have committed this crime."
City Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Takata was disheartened by the verdict. He said the facts presented in the case showed that while Lawrence may have been suffering to some degree from a mental illness, he nonetheless "knew exactly what he was doing" when he killed Tabag.
He said Lawrence backed Tabag's car into the garage to load the body in the trunk, retrieved a bone saw and large knife from his parents' house to dismember Tabag's remains, collected two empty dog food bags to put the remains in and cut the body up along joint areas to make the task easier, all of which indicated a rational thought process on Lawrence's part.
"We don't dispute he had a mental illness, but we believe he was able to conform his behavior to the law," Takata said.
He said the prosecutor's office will try to make certain Lawrence is kept at the Hawai'i State Hospital "as long as possible."
"If given the opportunity and the tools, he has indicated that he is going to do this again," Takata said.
In handing down the verdict, Crandall ruled that the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Lawrence killed Tabag by hitting him in the head with a hammer and stabbing him in the neck and chest.
But Crandall ruled that Lawrence "lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct and to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law."
Defense lawyers who raise the insanity defense have had a difficult time obtaining acquittals. Under Hawai'i law, the defense must prove that it is more likely than not that the defendant is legally insane. Byran Uyesugi's defense lawyers, for example, were unable to convince a jury that he should be acquitted by reason of insanity of murdering seven fellow Xerox employees in 1999. Uyesugi is serving a life prison term without parole.
Dean Yamashiro, state chief deputy public defender, said insanity acquittals in murder trials don't happen often. He said judges and jurors often don't understand mental illness.
"Normal people, people who don't seem to understand, feel that people should be responsible for their actions whether they're mentally ill or not," Yamashiro said.
Another misunderstood fact, he said, is people who are acquitted by reason of insanity often spend more time in the state hospital than those convicted of murder will spend in prison. "It's very difficult to get someone actually released from the state hospital after they have had a murder acquittal based on the insanity defense," Yamashiro said.
Yamashiro cited the 1977 case of Warren Miller, who was acquitted by reason of insanity of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old visitor on Wai'alae Iki Ridge and throwing her off a cliff. Miller, Yamashiro said, is still confined at the state hospital, unable to obtain a conditional release.
Advertiser staff writer Curtis Lum contributed to this report.
