STAR-BULLETIN / 2002 William Kotis sits in Circuit Court during his trial, away from the lawyer he tried to fire.

Accused wife killer is faking
psychosis, expert says

A psychologist testifies that William Kotis
wants to avoid any criminal responsibility

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By Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.com

A man accused of murdering his wife nearly 10 years ago exaggerates symptoms of mental illness to avoid being held criminally responsible for his actions, a court-appointed psychologist testified.

Olaf Gitter was one of the court-appointed mental health experts who interviewed William Kotis in 1994 and believed he was psychotic. Gitter changed his mind following his most recent interview with Kotis.

Kotis is accused of the shotgun murder of his estranged wife, 29-year-old Lynn Kotis, in the parking lot of her Waikiki apartment building on Sept. 7, 1992. He faces life with the possibility of parole if convicted of second-degree murder, kidnapping and first-degree terroristic threatening.

His trial resumed yesterday before Circuit Judge Richard Perkins after it had been suspended in January so a panel of three doctors could determine whether Kotis suffered mental disease or disturbance. Kotis had been deemed unfit to go to trial on at least five occasions before last September.

The defense raised the mental and insanity defense when the trial began in January. The state contends that Kotis killed his wife because she left him.

The trial continued yesterday even after Kotis once again tried to fire his attorney, David Bettencourt, whom he spat on before the judge entered the courtroom.

Bettencourt asked to withdraw from the case, but Perkins denied his request, saying that Kotis would be deprived of his right to a fair trial if allowed to represent himself because he does not stay focused on a topic and tends to leave when witnesses are testifying.

Kotis was removed from the courtroom twice yesterday for interrupting the proceedings.

Gitter said that when he interviewed Kotis on March 22 at the Oahu Community Correctional Center, Kotis was rational except when discussing his wife and her boyfriend. When that topic came up, Gitter said Kotis brought up delusional thoughts, such as that his wife never died and that her boyfriend was the devil.

Gitter said he believed "those statements were made to convince me he was not criminally responsible."

At the time of the shooting, Kotis "was very angry at his wife, and he had the belief that if he could not have her, no one could have her," Gitter said.

Also testifying yesterday was Kotis' friend Joel Zarriello, who has known him since 1989.

Zarriello, 34, said that in the month leading up to the murder, Kotis had told him several times that he intended to kill his wife, and possibly their son.

According to Zarriello, Kotis was upset that his wife had moved in with someone else and was smoking marijuana. Then, when he found out that she was moving to the mainland, "he said he was going to get a gun and shoot her," Zarriello said.

"I tried everything humanly possible to stop this thing," he said, describing efforts to talk to him and bring him to the Door of Faith church and Queen's Medical Center. Zarriello said he did not warn Lynn or talk to his brother, who is a police officer.

Zarriello said he was shocked when he heard about the murder on the news.

"I thought it was a possibility, but I didn't think it would happen."

Asked about his friend's mental state at the time of the murder, Zarriello said, "I think he knew what he was doing but he wasn't getting enough sleep."