Man tried for 1992 murder of wife

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

A man accused of the 1992 shotgun murder of his estranged wife in Waikiki admitted yesterday that he shot the woman after trying repeatedly to get her to leave another man with whom she had begun a relationship.

At the end of four hours of often rambling, stream-of-conscious testimony, William "Jimmy" Kotis said he bought a "powerful gun," one strong enough to kill bears, and used it to kill 29-year-old Lynn Kotis on Sept. 7, 1992, in the parking lot of her Waikiki apartment.

Kotis, 40, said he hoped his wife would "just go to sleep" after he fired the first shot, but could hear her "in my mind" crying out in pain, so he shot her another five or six times.

Kotis said the shotgun jammed and he was shot by police, preventing him from carrying out plans to kill himself.

The shooting caused a public uproar when it occurred nearly 10 years ago because Kotis was issued a permit to buy the gun even though he had a criminal conviction and because Lynn Kotis, 29, had gone through the court process of getting a temporary restraining order in hopes of protecting herself.

Kotis took the witness stand yesterday during his jury-waived trial on charges of murdering his wife and related counts. The trial had been delayed for years until a panel of mental health experts deemed him fit to aid in his own defense.

His lawyer, David Bettencourt, has argued that Kotis was under extreme mental and emotional duress and cannot be held legally responsible for his actions, but city Deputy Prosecutor Maurice Arrisgado maintains Kotis simply shot his wife to prevent her from starting a new life with another man.

Yesterday, Kotis said his wife agreed to have lunch with him several times even after a family court judge issued a "double restraining order" meant to keep both parties away from one another.

Kotis said each time he met with his wife, he hoped the encounters would be pleasant but always turned into confrontations.

In the months and weeks leading up to the shooting, Kotis said his life was on a downward spiral. He said he consulted psychics, dabbled in numerology, listened to a tape given to him by a couple who told him it contained voices from souls in hell, could not eat and slept very little.

In describing his earlier life, Kotis said he was born out of wedlock to a mother who had her first child at 13 and gave birth to him two years later.

On the day of the killing, Kotis said he had rented a car and was in a nearby apartment when he saw Lynn Kotis pull into the parking lot of her apartment building with her new boyfriend. At that point, Kotis said, he was "overcome with a feeling of love" and just wanted to take his estranged wife home with him.

But when he was trying to pull her out of the truck, the new boyfriend intervened and pulled him away. At that point, Kotis said, he ran to the rental car, removed the shotgun and killed his wife.

"Lynn was screaming, 'No, Jimmy, no!' But I couldn't stop thinking, 'We're finally gonna have peace together,' " Kotis said.