Man gets life term for killing his wife
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
An O'ahu man who killed his wife with a shotgun in 1992 after she left him for another man was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole yesterday.
Circuit Judge Richard Perkins also sentenced William James Kotis to 20 years for a terroristic threatening conviction and five years on a kidnapping count.
But he rejected a request by city Deputy Prosecutor Maurice Arrisgado to have the terroristic threatening and kidnapping sentences run consecutively and to have Kotis begin serving them after he finishes serving the life term for murder.
Perkins did impose a requirement that Kotis serve at least 15 years of the life term before the Hawai'i Paroling Authority can consider a request by him for parole.
Arrisgado said after the court hearing that he will ask the Hawai'i Paroling Authority to set a 100-year minimum term for Kotis, who killed his wife, Lynn, in the parking lot of the Waikiki apartment building where she had taken up residence with a boyfriend.
In asking for the consecutive terms, Arrisgado told Judge Perkins that Kotis had been "diagnosed as a psychopath — up on top of the scale."
"William Kotis planned ahead to kill his wife and carried out the plan," Arrisgado told Perkins. "All of this time, one day short of a full 10 years, Lynn Kotis has waited for some justice and it has finally come."
The shotgun slaying of Lynn Kotis sent shock waves through O'ahu communities a decade ago after it was learned that she had obtained a restraining order against her husband and that he had been issued a permit by the Honolulu Police Department to buy the firearm even though he had a history of mental illness.
After spending most of the past 10 years in the Hawai'i State Hospital in Kane'ohe and the O'ahu Community Correctional Center, William Kotis was brought to trial on the murder charge and other counts after a majority of mental health experts who examined him concluded he was not insane and had largely been faking a mental illness.
Arrisgado told Perkins that Kotis should have been charged also with attempted first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole. Arrisgado said after the hearing that Kotis not only shot his estranged wife but also attempted to shoot her boyfriend as well.
But Kotis' court-appointed lawyer, David Bettencourt, told Perkins that there has never been a psychiatric determination that Kotis would be a danger to anyone "at the present time." Bettencourt said a life term with the possibility of parole would serve to adequately protect the public.
When it was his turn to address the court, Kotis said the only one he ever tried to hurt was himself.
"That's all from self-hatred," Kotis said.
He told Perkins he believes his wife's spirit is still with him.
"I could die now and be at peace because I know I will be with my family," Kotis said.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
