Posted on: Tuesday, September 9, 2003

Big Isle man committed to hospital goes untreated

Associated Press

HILO, Hawai'i — A Big Island judge said he was "appalled and dismayed" to learn a man who killed his girlfriend wasn't being treated for the mental disorder that led to his being committed to the Hawai'i State Hospital.

Circuit Judge Terence Yoshioka ordered the state to provide Curtis Kealoha of 'O'okala treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder.

Kealoha, 55, had stood trial for second-degree murder in the 1994 strangulation of Victoria Agres. He was committed to the mental hospital in 1996 after being acquitted at the end of a bench trial by a judge who ruled Kealoha lacked the mental capacity to follow the law when Agres was killed.

Defense attorney Michael Ebesugawa asked Yoshioka to discharge Kealoha from the hospital or release him with conditions so he can obtain treatment from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

A hearing on the motion that began Aug. 29 has been continued to Oct. 3.

Four days before Agres was killed, Kealoha was released from Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, where he was being treated for posttraumatic stress disorder.