Mental exams ordered for man in Ala Wai death
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
A Waikiki man who was charged with murdering a 71-year-old man who drowned after being shoved into the Ala Wai Canal was ordered by a District Court judge yesterday to undergo an examination by three mental-health experts.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Circuit Judge Christopher McKenzie ordered the psychiatric review for Cline Kahue after deputy public defender Todd Eddins said Kahue has been unable to assist in defending himself against a second-degree murder charge.
Cline Kahue is accused of shoving Jack Albert Wyatt, who died in the Ala Wai.
McKenzie allotted 30 days for the mental health experts to examine Kahue and scheduled a hearing for July 19 to consider the results. The judge ordered Kahue be moved from the O'ahu Community Correctional Center to the Hawai'i State Hospital pending the results of the psychiatric interviews. In the meantime, criminal proceedings are suspended.
If Kahue is deemed mentally incompetent — unable to assist in his defense or unable to understand the case against him — the prosecution would be further suspended until he is determined to be fit to stand trial, according to state law.
Kahue, 48, is accused of pushing Jack Albert Wyatt, a former Honolulu Star-Bulletin free-lance writer, down a 4-foot rock-and-concrete embankment into the canal and then assaulting two women along the busy sidewalk next to the waterway. Wyatt struck his head on rocks and drowned.
Kahue, who has a history of mental-health problems, sat in the extreme left front corner of the courtroom yesterday and did not acknowledge the judge or his lawyer. He mumbled several words in Hawaiian before blurting out, "They all must die."
Kahue was acquitted of five misdemeanor assault charges in July 1997 on the basis of insanity. He was released from Hawai'i State Hospital in December 1997 under the terms of a "conditional release program" similar to probation and was discharged from the program last year.
Eddins said he met with Kahue three times but Kahue would not communicate with him. City deputy prosecutor Vince Kanemoto did not object to the mental-health review.
