Accused triple murderer Adam Mau-Goffredo, transferred last month for mental treatment at Hawai'i State Hospital, is physically dangerous and will be involuntarily medicated by hospital staff, a circuit judge ruled yesterday.

The defendant is awaiting trial on charges that he shot to death three people at Tantalus lookout in July 2006. Last month he was transferred from jail to the state hospital after three court-appointed psychiatric experts found him mentally unfit for trial.

This week, the state Health Department filed a motion with Judge Dexter Del Rosario seeking permission to involuntarily administer medication to the defendant.

The motion said Mau-Goffredo stabbed a prison guard in the face with a pen in September 2006 while held at O'ahu Community Correctional Center.

He was then placed in isolation at Halawa Correctional Center and "refused medication for more than a year," according to the motion, filed by Heidi Rian and Dudley Akama, deputies in the attorney general's office.

Since moving to the hospital, Mau-Goffredo "will not relate to others verbally, avoids eye contact and is irritable when spoken to," the motion said.

Staff psychiatrist Dr. Margaret Grant "fears for the safety of staff and other patients at (the hospital) since he is free to move about his unit and comes into contact with other patients daily," the state said.

"In his unmedicated state, he is clearly in danger of causing physical harm to others," the state argued.

"According to Dr. Grant, there are no known effective nonmedication treatments for psychosis, and therefore, no less intrusive alternatives are available to treat his condition," the motion said.

Brook Hart, criminal defense lawyer for Mau-Goffredo, said yesterday that various parties in the case agreed that medication should be administered to the defendant.

Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.