Circuit Judge Wilfred Watanabe found Emelie Rauschenburg, 57, guilty of second-degree murder for the September 2001 stabbing death of 64-year-old Agapita Alcaraz, the operator of the Waipahu care home where Rauschenburg lived.

Rauschenburg faces a mandatory life sentence with the possibility of parole when she is sentenced July 25.

The verdict caps a case that prompted state legislators last year to pass a law that requires the state Department of Health to disclose to adult residential care home operators the prior violent criminal history of prospective residents.

Following the stabbing, Alcaraz's relatives said she had not been told about Rauschenburg's background when she moved into the Waipahu care home in March 2001.

"I think it was the right result," city Deputy Prosecutor Jeffrey Albert said of the verdict yesterday. "Based on the facts, there was nothing else the judge could've done," he said.

"The main emotion I have is sorrow for the Alcaraz family," Albert said. "It was a horrible tragedy for them."

Alcaraz's husband, Bartolome Alcaraz, and their son, Bruce Alcaraz, wore somber expressions yesterday. Alcaraz's husband had no comment on the verdict, but her son said he was glad the case is over.

"I'm satisfied with the decision," Bruce Alcaraz said.

Rauschenburg's lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Gary Oakes, left the courtroom after the verdict without talking to reporters.

Rauschenburg, who has a history of mental illness and drug abuse, was acquitted by reason of insanity for setting the 1984 Makiki fire that killed Richard Paramski, a 34-year-old disabled veteran.

At her trial nearly 20 years ago, four mental health experts found Rauschenburg mentally incompetent at the time of the fire, and then-Circuit Judge Robert Klein said he agreed with one of the psychologists who found that Rauschenburg was suffering from a manic-depressive mood disorder.

Klein committed Rauschenburg to the State Hospital in Kane'ohe, and she was later granted a conditional release. The Health Department and adult probation officials were charged with continuing to monitor her.

In a pretrial trial hearing in her current case, a police dispatcher testified that Rauschenburg told her she stabbed Alcaraz with a dinner knife because she was dissatisfied with the food at the home.

Rauschenburg's defense again raised the insanity issue, but a three-member panel appointed by the court unanimously concluded this time that she did not fall under the definition of legal insanity.

After those findings, Rauschenburg's defense did not argue that she was insane, but that Rauschenburg was under extreme distress that warranted a conviction on a lesser offense of manslaughter.

With his ruling, Watanabe rejected that defense.

Advertiser staff writer David Waite contributed to this report.