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Jury must decide if man
who killed wife was under
extreme disturbance

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By Leila Fujimori
Star-Bulletin

Danny Haili doesn't deny he killed his wife Philimena on June 1, 1996 by firing 11 bullets at point-blank range into her body.

But what triggered Haili to become so enraged that night was his wife's admission she was having an affair with another man, his lawyer said.

Attorneys presented closing arguments in Haili's trial at Circuit Court yesterday afternoon. The jury of six men and six women, which was to resume deliberations today, must now decide whether Haili was under extreme mental or emotional disturbance and, therefore, guilty of manslaughter. Otherwise, he could be found guilty of murder in the second degree.

The prosecution painted a picture of a man who controlled where his wife went, what she did, and how she dressed. He physically abused her and put a gun to her head, which caused her to turn to the other man for help.

The prosecution contended Haili didn't mind that his wife had a relationship with the man as long was they weren't seen together on Oahu.

"She was the flower on his arm," said Deputy Prosecutor Lynne Jenkins McGivern, noting that Haili would insist Philimena Haili be with him at the bar he frequented.

The prosecution argued Haili maintained self-control before, during and after the shooting and showed no signs of extreme mental or emotional disturbance.

When police arrived at their Kailua home after the shooting, Haili sat in the garage and calmly told them, "She's over there."

"Like she's a thing, not like she's somebody he loved for over 30 years," McGivern said.

McGivern said Haili wasn't emotional, crying, in shock or remorseful. He gave detailed information to police, showing no confusion.

On the night of the shooting, Haili socialized with friends and family and had dinner.

At some point after dinner, he chased Philimena through the house and into the carport, and unloaded six rounds into her, McGivern said. Haili went back into the house and reloaded the gun. He returned and shot her execution-style, McGivern said.

A neighbor, Eben Wong, testified that he heard Haili say to his wife, "I told you, don't f--- with me."

In response, Haili's attorney Samuel King Jr. said, "Danny Haili was focused in rage, not self-control.

"He was just dissipating his rage at the object of his rage."

King argued that Haili was under emotional stress from being laid off work, his son being seriously ill, his daughter being depressed and having both his father and father-in-law living in the house.

McGivern said Haili was carrying out his promise to kill his wife if she ever left him. He kept his promise, she told the jury.

"I don't care where you run, I will find you and kill you," Haili told his wife, McGivern said.

On June 1, 1996, Haili told his daughter: "I killed her because she was leaving me," McGivern said.

The prosecution said daughter Dayna Haili told a police detective in March 1996 that her father had packed a gun under his shirt and told her, "I'm taking care of business."

King discounted the testimony of the prosecution's witnesses. He said Dayna Haili was an "extreme" personality not to be trusted.

"Philimena was looking to get sympathy," King said. Friends and her sister testified she had confided in them about the abuse and that she wanted to leave her husband.

But King characterized it as Philimena's way of getting out of the relationship.