Updated at 1:56 p.m., Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Ewa Beach man indicted in wife's asphyxiation death
Advertiser Staff
A 45-year-old 'Ewa Beach man has been indicted for murder after he allegedly "compressed" his wife face-first into the ground of their back yard, asphyxiating her.The defendant, Michael Schuette, was arrested by Honolulu police Sept. 21 following the Sept. 10 death of his wife, Victoria, 49.
He is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Rom Trader said in court today that the death occurred during a domestic altercation over "landscaping issues" at the couple's home.
When the victim, who was just over 5 feet tall and weighed 130 pounds, fell in the back yard, Schuette allegedly laid his 270-pound body on top of her, "compressing her into the ground," Trader said.
Victoria Schuette filed for divorce in April and had asked her husband to move out of the house, but he resisted that request, Trader said in court.
There were "prior incidents of unreported domestic violence," Trader told the judge.
The couple owned four different homes and had been unable to agree on distribution of those marital assets, he said.
