The jury is deliberating within the trial of a Hawaii physician accused of attempting to kill his spouse on a climbing path.
Dr. Gerhardt Konig, 47, has pleaded not responsible to second-degree tried homicide. Prosecutors allege the anesthesiologist attacked his spouse, Arielle Konig, close to a cliff whereas on the Pali Puka Path on Oahu on March 24, 2025, by pushing her close to the sting after which beating her a number of occasions with a rock.
The protection, in the meantime, has alleged that Arielle Konig attacked her husband first, and that he hit her with the rock in self-defense.
Each Gerhardt Konig and his spouse testified in the course of the three-week trial in Honolulu, presenting these broadly differing accounts of what occurred on the hike.
Gerhardt Konig seems in courtroom earlier than closing arguments in his tried homicide trial, April 7, 2026, in Honolulu.
Mengshin Lin/AP
Prosecutor Joel Garner advised jurors in his closing argument that the proof proves past an affordable doubt that Gerhardt Konig supposed to kill his spouse that day on the difficult, slim and steep Pali Puka Path by pushing her off the cliff.
“One push is all it might tackle this path,” Garner stated. “One push, and it is a tragic accident.”
When that alleged plan did not work, Garner argued that the defendant then tried to inject her with a syringe earlier than in the end attacking her with a rock.
“The defendant swung this rock so exhausting that items of rock broke off into Arielle’s scalp,” Garner stated.
Prosecutor Joel Garner delivers his closing argument, exhibiting the rock he stated was used within the alleged assault, throughout Gerhardt Konig’s tried homicide trial in Honolulu, April 7, 2026.
Pool by way of ABC Information
The prosecutor alleged that Gerhardt Konig got here up with the plan to keep away from a pricey divorce.
Garner stated Arielle Konig’s “easy” and “coherent” testimony was corroborated by the bloody proof on the scene, the “severity” of her accidents, digital proof and the testimony of different witnesses — together with two ladies who stumbled on the couple within the midst of the alleged assault.
“The one factor that acquired him to cease was being caught red-handed,” Garner stated.
Garner argued that Gerhardt Konig’s testimony, in the meantime, was “unbelievable” and “crammed with contradictions,” and that the defendant’s account of his spouse attacking him with the rock “would not make sense.”
The prosecutor juxtaposed images of Gerhardt Konig’s bruised face with Arielle Konig’s bloodied one which have been taken within the wake of the incident.
“The concept that these accidents have been brought on by the identical rock — utterly unbelievable,” Garner stated.
Garner additionally pushed again towards Gerhardt Konig’s testimony that he solely hit his spouse two occasions, citing the extent of her accidents.
“He hit her many times and many times, and he solely advised you two occasions,” Garner stated.
Throughout his closing argument, protection lawyer Thomas Otake stated there’s “cheap doubt throughout this case,” referring to it as “he stated, she stated.”
“They’re undeterred by the proof,” Otake stated of the prosecutors. “It would not matter what it exhibits, they are going to spin it of their favor. They got here up with a concept they usually went to seek for details to help it.”
He argued there was no plan for the defendant to kill his spouse and reread the birthday card that Gerhardt Konig wrote to his spouse for her birthday the day of the hike — by which he wrote partly, “You are the center of our household.”
“You do not write a letter like this in the event you’re planning to kill anyone two hours later,” Otake stated.
He disputed the alleged plan outlined by the prosecutor.
“Why on the earth, in the event you deliver a syringe to incapacitate somebody to make it simpler to throw them off the cliff, why would the syringe be Plan B? It could be Plan A,” Otake stated.
He additionally questioned why Arielle Konig’s testimony was largely unemotional, save for when she learn the birthday card from her husband, and argued that her testimony was “not dependable.”
“You can’t get emotional over a made-up story that did not occur if you began the battle,” Otake stated.
If the jurors are unable to search out Gerhardt Konig responsible of second-degree tried homicide, they may think about whether or not he’s responsible of tried manslaughter based mostly upon excessive psychological or emotional disturbance, first-degree tried assault, second-degree assault or third-degree assault.
Arielle Konig testifies throughout her husband’s tried homicide trial in Honolulu, March 24, 2026.
Pool by way of ABC Information
Whereas on the stand in the course of the trial, Arielle Konig testified that the 2 had traveled to Oahu from their dwelling in Maui to have a good time her birthday. She stated they’d been engaged on repairing their marriage after her husband discovered what she characterised as “flirty” WhatsApp messages between her and a colleague in December 2024 in what she stated was an “emotional affair.”
Arielle Konig testified that in the course of the hike, her husband pushed her towards the sting of the cliff. As they wrestled on the bottom with him on high, pinning her down, he produced a syringe and vial, she stated.
She additional testified that her husband proceeded to beat her with a rock as many as 10 occasions, and that she believed he was attempting to knock her unconscious with a purpose to drag her over the sting of the cliff.
Arielle Konig testified that she fought again by biting her husband’s forearm and pleaded with him, saying, “You’ll be able to’t do it,” and that “our youngsters might be orphans — you will go to jail and I will be useless.”
“He is saying, ‘You are carried out. We’re carried out with you. We do not want you anymore. You are carried out. You are carried out,'” she advised the courtroom.
Arielle Konig testified that she yelled, “He is attempting to kill me,” and screamed for assist, and two feminine hikers occurred upon them. One of many hikers advised a 911 operator, “Somebody’s at present being attacked on the highest of Pali Puka. There is a man attempting to kill her,” in line with audio of the decision performed in courtroom.
Prosecutors confirmed pictures of Arielle Konig’s bloodied face following the incident. She testified that she crawled away from her husband and was helped down the remainder of the path by the 2 ladies. She stated she was handled at a hospital for “extreme advanced scalp lacerations” and confirmed the courtroom scarring on her scalp.
Gerhardt Konig testified in his personal protection over two days, sustaining that he by no means supposed to harm his spouse and acted in self-defense when he struck her with the rock.
He advised the courtroom that his spouse pushed him close to the sting after they acquired into an argument about her affair, and that she hit him with a rock first whereas they struggled on the bottom. He admitted to hitting her with the rock whereas on high of her, saying he struck her twice, although he denied having any syringes or attempting to tug her towards the cliff’s edge.
Gerhardt Konig testified that he felt suicidal after the incident.
“I simply felt hopeless at that time by way of all the things,” he stated. “I felt horrified about what I did to her, that I had brought about this to her, that I had resorted to violence towards my spouse, the one who I like probably the most on the earth. And I simply sort of felt hopeless by way of our relationship, too.”
Shortly after the incident, Gerhardt Konig testified, he made a FaceTime name to his 20-year-old son from his prior marriage, Emile Konig, to say goodbye.
His son testified in regards to the FaceTime name in the course of the trial. Requested by the prosecutor to recount what his father stated in the course of the name, Emile Konig responded, “That he wouldn’t be making it again to Maui and to take excellent care of the youthful children, and that Ari, my stepmom, had been dishonest on him, and that he tried to kill her.”
“Throughout that decision, the subsequent plan that he stated was to leap off the cliff,” Emile Konig testified, including that his father stated he was “on the finish of his rope.”
Gerhardt Konig testifies throughout his tried homicide trial in Honolulu, April 2, 2026.
Pool by way of ABC Information
Gerhardt Konig pushed again towards his son’s testimony and denied making any confession. He advised the courtroom that what he stated in the course of the name was, “She stated I attempted to kill her.”
Gerhardt Konig was arrested following an hourslong manhunt, prosecutors stated.
Arielle Konig filed for divorce in Might 2025, looking for full custody of the couple’s two younger kids.
Gerhardt Konig, who labored as an anesthesiologist on Maui, has been in jail since his arrest. Following his arrest, Maui Well being stated his medical employees privileges at Maui Memorial Medical Middle have been suspended pending investigation.
