Hawaii doctor accused of trying to kill his wife found guilty of attempted manslaughter | Hawaii

A Hawaiian anesthesiologist accused of trying to kill his wife during a cliffside hike last year has been found guilty of the lesser charge of attempted manslaughter.

A Honolulu jury returned the verdict for 47-year-old Gerhardt Konig on Wednesday after a day of deliberations.

Prosecutors said Konig planned to kill his wife, Arielle Konig, during a weekend trip to Honolulu for her birthday in March 2025. They said he tried to push her off the cliff, stabbed her with a syringe and then hit her with a rock before two hikers, hearing her cries for help, interrupted the attack.

The defendant stated that it was his wife who first hit him with a stone, and that he responded to her in self-defense.

Konig had a plan and backup plans to kill his wife, Arielle Konig, during a weekend trip to Honolulu for her birthday in March 2025, deputy prosecutor Joel Garner told jurors in his closing argument Tuesday. Konig tried to push him off the cliff, and when that didn’t work, he tried to stab him with a syringe filled with an unknown substance.

When that didn’t work, Garner said he grabbed the rock.

“Every backup plan results in Arielle’s death,” Garner said, showing the rock and photos of her injuries.

The doctor’s attorney told jurors Tuesday that there was no such plan and repeatedly tried to cast doubt on Arielle’s testimony. Gerhardt pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and insisted that he had first defended himself against his wife, who had attacked him with a rock.

Attorney Thomas Otake asked if Gerhardt had wanted to kill his wife and had access to a syringe in a remote area, wouldn’t he have drugged her and then thrown her off the cliff rather than starting a fight before trying to fill the syringe while wrestling her?

“You’ll use the syringe first,” Otake said. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

The trial began last month, nearly a year after Gerhadt and Arielle went for a walk along the Pali Puka trail in Honolulu, which ended with him covered in blood and screaming that Arielle was trying to kill him.

While the Konigs were on the trip, their two young sons stayed at home in Maui. Garner said Gerhardt, upset about his wife’s affair with a co-worker, attacked her near a lookout point that offered sweeping views. Garner said he only stopped because two other marchers stopped the attack.

At the hearing, where the statements were broadcast live by Court TV, the couple’s marital problems until the raise and versions of what happened on the road were broadcast.

Gerhardt testified that his wife was having an affair, and he confirmed this by unlocking her phone while she was asleep. Arielle’s relationship with a co-worker, which she described as an “emotional affair” that included flirty messages, came up during the walk.

Arielle stated that her husband grabbed her and moved her towards the edge of the cliff, but she threw herself to the ground to hold on. She said the man straddled her and had a syringe in his hand, but she dodged it. To get him off of her, she bit his forearm and squeezed his testicles, he said.

Her husband denied pushing her to the side and stated that he hit her on the side of her face with a rock. He said he wrestled the rock away in self-defense and hit it twice.

Gerhardt also denied having a syringe on the mountain or trying to stab his wife. The defense lawyer said that there was no syringe at the scene because he did not have any.

Otake said Gerhardt was not someone trying to commit murder, but someone struggling with infidelity and trying to do the best he could. Otake cited a heart-shaped birthday card Gerhardt wrote to his wife, calling her “the heart of our family” and saying: “The kids and I hit the jackpot with you.”

Gerhardt testified that as he watched his wife crawl away, he believed his marriage and career were over and decided to jump to his death. But first he called his adult son from a previous marriage. The son told authorities that his father said he “tried to kill your stepmother”; Gerhardt rejected this confession.

Gerhardt testified that he called his son to say goodbye.

Garner said that during this conversation, the defendant did not mention that he hit his wife in self-defense.

Garner said he hid on the mountain for about eight hours before deciding to come down, and even then tried to escape when confronted by police.

Arielle has since filed for divorce.