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William "Jimmy" Kotis Jr. intended to kill himself after shooting his estranged wife in 1992 -- out of despair, not anger, Kotis testified yesterday. Killer testifies he intended
suicide after shooting wifeBy Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.comKotis is charged with second-degree murder, kidnapping and terroristic threatening in the death of 29-year-old Lynn Kotis. He took the stand yesterday to testify in his own defense before Circuit Judge Richard Perkins.
The 40-year-old, who has tried several times to fire his attorney David Bettencourt, said he does not agree with his attorney's use of the insanity defense and suggested he would argue irresistible impulse or extreme emotional disorder in his defense instead.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Maurice Arrisgado has said Kotis killed his wife because she left him. She had a temporary restraining order against him that prevented him from contacting her.
On the day of his wife's death, Kotis said he was trying to keep her from moving away from Oahu with her boyfriend, who he believed was a demon providing Lynn with marijuana. Kotis described how he watched from a friend's lanai until Lynn and her boyfriend pulled up in the parking lot of their Waikiki apartment building, then ran downstairs and persuaded Lynn to get into his car so he could take her home.
However, before he could get into the car, Lynn's boyfriend attacked him, Kotis said.
"At this point, I didn't want no one to get hurt," he said, even as he described taking out a big "Rambo" knife.
Moments later, he said, "I seen blackness."
"I don't think it was anger," Kotis said.
He said he was thinking: "Life's over. This is the end of the universe."
He pulled the gun from the back seat, Kotis said, and "Lynn kept screaming, 'No, Jimmy, no ... no."
"I wanted to stop but I couldn't," he said.
What he wanted, he said, was to give them both peace.
"I just wanted us to die together," he said.
Kotis denies that he attempted to kill his wife's boyfriend. He tried shooting himself but the gun jammed, he said.
"I thought it was going to be just like a lightning bolt ... (but) the safety was on."
Kotis said he expected the first shot to knock Lynn unconscious, but instead she kept screaming and pleading for her life.
"How come she didn't disappear? I thought she would just cease," he said.
He started shooting "real fast," Kotis said.
"I just wanted her to stop."
Earlier, Kotis described Lynn in loving terms and blamed himself for their breakup. Lynn had wanted a monogamous marriage, while he persuaded her that they should see other people.
"She just really wanted it to be us two," he said. "She just didn't understand."
Right before Lynn got the restraining order, Kotis said, he visited her at her mother's home.
"I remember telling her I'm going to buy the biggest gun there is so we can die fast."
Lynn suggested he buy her a friendship ring instead, he remembered. She also told him she would miss him if he died.
"I told her, 'Don't worry about it. We're going together,'" he said.