|
A 39-year-old man accused in the shotgun murder of his estranged wife in 1992 did it because he felt it was the only way they could be together forever, said defense attorney David Bettencourt. Insanity issues raised
as murder trial opensWilliam Kotis meant to die with his wife, his attorney contends
By Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.comBut William Kotis was acting under extreme emotional distress and suffering from a mental disease when he shot Lynn Kotis in the parking lot of the Waikiki apartment building where she lived, Bettencourt added.
Bettencourt raised the mental and insanity defense yesterday during opening statements in the domestic murder trial even as Kotis unsuccessfully tried to fire him and represent himself.
Kotis faces life with the possibility of parole if convicted of second-degree murder, kidnapping and first-degree terroristic threatening. Until September, Kotis was deemed unfit to go to trial or assist in his defense at least five times.
The state contends Kotis killed wife Lynn, 29, because she had left him. At the time of her death, she had a restraining order against him that prohibited him from contacting her.
Kotis waited in the parking lot of 1916 Kaioo Drive for her to come home the evening of Sept. 7, 1992, then confronted her and her boyfriend as they drove in, said senior Deputy Prosecutor Maurice Arrisgado. Kotis dragged his wife to his rental car parked on the street as her boyfriend, Gregory Wittman tried to intervene, he said.
Kotis allegedly threatened the couple with a hunting knife, then reached into the back seat of his car and pulled out a shotgun concealed in a large bag.
As the couple fled toward their building, Kotis followed, cornering them at a wall that Wittman managed to scale.
Unable to escape, Lynn Kotis begged her husband to stop and even offered to go with him, said Bobby Crawford, a neighbor who witnessed the shooting from about 50 to 75 feet away.
But Kotis shot anyway at point-blank range, Arrisgado said.
"She went flailing right down to the ground," said Crawford, who heard a second shot immediately thereafter, followed by three more. Shots also were fired in Wittman's direction.
Off-duty police officer Pedro Sajona confronted Kotis as he tried to leave the area, shooting him in the buttocks. The officer struggled with Kotis and managed to subdue him with the help of arriving bystanders.
Kotis had hoped he and his wife could get back together again as they had on previous occasions, Bettencourt said. After studying the Old and New Testament, Kotis was convinced the only way he and his wife could be together always was if they died in a murder-suicide. That's why after the officer shot him, Kotis begged him to shoot again, Bettencourt said.
"'Please shoot me' -- he must have said it 30 times," Crawford testified.
Kotis interrupted Crawford's testimony repeatedly despite warnings by the judge that he could be removed. At one point Kotis said of his wife: "She was my best friend in the world. We were supposed to go together."
After the shooting, Lynn Kotis' family criticized police for issuing William Kotis a firearms permit despite a previous conviction for domestic abuse, and questioned the effectiveness of restraining orders that are not enforced. They sued the city and the firm that sold Kotis the shotgun just three days before the shooting, and obtained an out-of-court settlement.