StarBulletin.com

Canadian avoids trial in wife's 2007 slaying


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POSTED: Saturday, August 08, 2009

An 86-year-old man who told police he killed his wife in their Waikiki hotel room 2 1/2 years ago will not stand trial for murder.

A state judge dismissed the charge yesterday after finding that Canadian visitor Tadeusz Zygmunt “;Ted”; Jandura is mentally unfit to stand trial and unlikely to be fit any time in the future.

“;He has been unable to benefit from repeated fitness restoration. He has difficulty understanding simple concepts—concepts of time and concepts that pertain to his physical reality,”; said Circuit Judge Michael Wilson.

Wilson then committed Jandura to the Hawaii State Hospital.

“;He stays there for up to 90 days,”; said Richard Hoke Jr., Jandura's lawyer.

“;At that point in time, the state can petition for further detention, an additional 90 days. And then after that, petition again for 180 days, and it can go on and on and on,”; he said.

However, the state will have to convince a family court judge that Jandura poses a danger to himself and others for continued civil commitment to the State Hospital.

If Jandura wins release, Hoke has made arrangements for him to return to his native Poland rather than to Canada, where his adult children live.

Jandura's son and daughter reported that their father had been physically and emotionally abusive to their mother since they were children.

“;Surprisingly, they expected, in a cynical way, that their father, having known him all their lives, that he was going to get off, so to speak,”; said Maurice Arrisgado, senior deputy city prosecutor, “;that they weren't going to get any justice out of it.”;

Jandura called police to a 13th-floor Ilikai Hotel room on Feb. 25, 2007. When they arrived, he told them he had killed his 82-year-old wife, Ingeborg. She had been stabbed more than 100 times.

Two of the three mental health experts appointed to examine Jandura and his treatment team at the State Hospital told Wilson that Jandura is unfit to stand trial. The third expert said Jandura is fit and is faking symptoms of dementia and post-traumatic stress disorder. Jandura survived the Holocaust at the Auschwitz concentration camp.