LIHU'E, Kaua'i — John Hoapili wept on the witness stand yesterday as prosecutors played a recording of the 911 call he made early March 3 to try to save his mother's life.

"Can you send an ambulance? My dad stabbed my mom," Hoapili told the 911 operator in the recording, then gave the 2926 Kress St. address of the home he shared with his parents.

There was a commotion in the recording, with yelling that was hard to understand at Hoapili's end and the 911 operator kept asking, "Sir, sir, where is the knife."

Finally John Hoapili answered, "He still has it. ... hurry up."

Yesterday, John Hoapili grimaced in pain and wiped tears from his eyes in District Judge Trudy Senda's courtroom. Other family members in the courtroom cried aloud.

Joseph Hoapili Sr., 50, who is charged with second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Fredlynn Hoapili, 53, stared down at the polished wood table in front of him and showed no outward emotion.

Hoapili remains in custody in lieu of $1 million bail.

Senda found probable cause that Joseph Hoapili Sr. should stand trial on the second-degree murder charge and bound the case over to Circuit Court, where Hoapili will be arraigned March 19.

John Hoapili, 33, testified that he saw his father stab his mother as many as seven times, while he begged him to stop.

When John Hoapili tried to enter his parents' bedroom and help his mother, his father charged at him with the 12-inch-long kitchen knife, he testified.

John Hoapili testified that his mother's call for him to help her woke him in the adjoining bedroom. At first he thought his parents were just fighting, but while on the phone with the 911 operator, "I seen him stab her," he said.

John Hoapili testified that when his father uses crystal methamphetamine, he accuses his mother of cheating on him.

Fredlynn Hoapili died of 14 stab wounds in her left chest, which punctured both lungs and damaged her heart, testified Dr. Anthony Manoukian, who performed an autopsy.