Posted on: Friday, June 14, 2002

Investigator testifies against accused wife killer

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

A Ko Olina man accused of killing his wife in April 2000 showed an unusual interest in finding out whether an autopsy might show the woman had been strangled, the lead investigator with the city medical examiner's office testified on the opening day of trial yesterday.

Susan Siu said she found it odd that Kenneth Wakisaka began asking her about strangulation since his wife, Shirlene Wakisaka, had been admitted to St. Francis-West Medical Center on April 5, 2000, as a possible drug overdose and attempted suicide patient.

Siu said Shirlene Wakisaka lingered in a coma for five days. Siu said she interviewed Kenneth Wakisaka at the hospital within hours after his wife died, and that he was well-dressed, did not appear to be grieving and became upset when she began asking questions.

She said Wakisaka insisted that his wife had died of natural causes.

"He said if we did an autopsy, could we determine if she had been strangled," Siu said. "I had no information at the time that it might be a strangulation death."

During the next several days, Wakisaka pestered the medical examiner's office with telephone calls and showed up in person at the office several times to see if strangulation had been listed as the cause of his wife's death, Siu said.

Wakisaka, 46, was indicted 11 months later on a charge of second-degree murder in connection with the death of his wife, who was 54.

During his opening statement yesterday, city deputy prosecutor Dan Oyasato told jurors in Circuit Judge Marie Milks' courtroom that the evidence in the case would show that Wakisaka strangled his wife in hopes of collecting on a $100,000 insurance policy he had purchased for her just a month before her death.

Oyasato characterized the Wakisakas' relationship as a rocky one, saying Shirlene Wakisaka had moved out of the couple's condominium and traveled to Arizona and California to live, but had reconciled and moved back to Hawai'i shortly before her death.

Oyasato said paramedics were called to the Wakisaka's home early April 5, 2000, and were told by Kenneth Wakisaka that his wife was suffering from a drug overdose. He said that Kenneth Wakisaka signed a waiver form so his wife would not be transported to a hospital.

Paramedics were called back eight hours later, but this time found Shirlene Wakisaka unresponsive and took her to the hospital, Oyasato said.

In his opening statement, Wakisaka's lawyer, Mal Gillin, told the jury that the case is very much about an attempt to collect on the life insurance policy issued to Shirlene Wakisaka.

But he said her two daughters from a previous marriage teamed up to "frame their stepfather" for Shirlene Wakisaka's death in hopes of being paid the $100,000 from the insurance policy and gaining possession of the couple's condominium.

He said Shirlene Wakisaka was "manic depressive" and that her mood swings would take her from being "nearly euphoric at times to the bottom level of hell."

Gillin said Kenneth Wakisaka tried to deal with his wife's mental health problems "as best he could."

When police, Fire Department personnel and paramedics responded to the first call for help April 5, Shirlene Wakisaka kept apologizing for "all the trouble her attempted suicide" had caused, Gillin said.