CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Emilie Rauschenburg listened to testimony at her murder trial yesterday. She was acquitted by reason of insanity in a 1984 boardinghouse fire that killed a disabled veteran.

Prosecutors play murder
defendant’s 911 call

Her attorney argues mental
disturbance led to the stabbing death

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By Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.com

The attorney for a woman accused of stabbing her caregiver to death says she was suffering from an extreme mental and emotional disturbance that was prompted in part by the kind of food she was being served and a lingering mental condition.

Trial began yesterday for Emelie Rauschenburg, 57, who is charged with second-degree murder for allegedly killing Agapita Alcaraz on Sept. 30, 2000, at the Waipahu care home operated by Alcaraz. Rauschenburg had been living at the Kahualena Street care home for a little more than six months.

In a murder case, a successful extreme mental and emotional disturbance defense reduces the offense to manslaughter, punishable by a 20-year prison term, compared to life imprisonment with parole for a second-degree murder conviction.

But Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Albert said Rauschenburg's words and actions show she is guilty of murder, which requires the state to prove the act was knowing and intentional.

Terry Thompson, supervisor of the Honolulu Police Department's 911 emergency line, testified yesterday that Rauschenburg called 911 to report she had killed her care home operator.

"I bought the knife and I killed her," Rauschenburg was heard saying in the tape-recorded 911 call played to the court yesterday.

Albert said that critical statement about purchasing the knife and the two knife wounds showed Rauschenburg was not a person who was "out of control and stabbing someone repeatedly."

Rather, Rauschenburg was restrained when she called 911 to report what she had done and implied a motive when she told the operator that Alcaraz was greedy, Albert said.

"I pay her $1,000 a month and she give me junk food," Rauschenburg told Thompson during the 911 call.

Rauschenburg could be heard saying "I killed her," no less than five times.

Officer Ryan Matsuda testified he and another officer who responded to a report of a stabbing were searching for occupants of the home when he was startled by Rauschenburg who walked out of a nearby room. She walked toward him with a knife in her upraised hand saying, "She's a crook...the lady's a crook," he said.

Three mental health experts who examined Rauschenburg earlier concluded that she was not suffering from any mental disorder or defect at the time she attacked Alcaraz.

Albert said he will introduce into evidence an autobiography Rauschenburg wrote while under mental health treatment years ago that details her experiences growing up -- "experiences that would transform any person into a mean person -- one who would take extraordinary offense at the slightest feeling they were being 'put upon,'" he said.

Rauschenburg was committed to the Hawaii State Hospital 18 years ago after she was found not guilty by reason of insanity for setting a Makiki boardinghouse on fire in January 1984, killing a disabled veteran.