POOL PHOTO
Murder suspect Douglas Fathke, barefoot and manacled, sat with his head on a table in Hilo District Court yesterday while he answered questions from Judge Sandra Schutte Song.
Mental evaluation
ordered for FathkeThe Big Island man charged
with killing his daughter
mumbles and cries in courtHILO >> Douglas Fathke, accused of killing his 8-year-old daughter, was ordered to undergo a mental evaluation after he spent an initial court appearance yesterday with his head on a table, mumbling and sobbing.
Fathke is accused of murder in the shooting death of his daughter Kelsie on Sunday, plus attempted murder in the choking of a 16-year-old boy and terroristic threatening against the boy's father. He is also charged with a firearms violation. Fathke allegedly committed the crimes at his business, Becky's Bed & Breakfast in Naalehu, 64 miles southwest of Hilo.
At yesterday's court session, District Judge Sandra Schutte Song asked Fathke if he knew who she was. "The judge," he said. She asked who the man next to Fathke was. "He's my lawyer," Fathke said. He answered both questions with his head resting on a table, face to the floor.
As Song spoke to Deputy Public Defender Michael Ebesugawa, Fathke mumbled toward the floor, then started sobbing.
"It's obvious your client is not fit to proceed," Song told Ebesugawa. She ordered a mental examination and a report to the court on June 26.
Fathke did not enter a plea. As he was led away, he mumbled, "I just want my mom to be here."
In the court building hallway, Fathke's friend Doby Beck said he thinks he could have been the one who was shot. Earlier Sunday morning, Fathke urged Beck to rest on the bed where Kelsie was eventually shot, but Beck said he was too restless.
Robert Dahl, whose son Bobby was allegedly choked by Fathke after the shooting, said anyone might have been the target. "I think that anybody that was there, he would have brought terror to," Dahl said from his home outside San Diego.
Beck's friend Summer Prettyman did not see any reason for the shooting. "I want to know why. It just doesn't make sense," she said yesterday at the courthouse.
For months before the shooting, Fathke had helped Beck when Beck was depressed.
"I was down and out," Beck said. "He'd buy me beer, food, gas."
"Sometimes he (also) needed somebody to talk to," Beck said. "I have never seen this man get angry."
But after an outing Saturday, Prettyman's daughter, Logan Oliveira, 13, told her mother that Fathke had been swearing at Kelsie. "Kelsie cried the whole time," Prettyman's daughter told her.
On Sunday, Kelsie, Logan and Beck's son Eaton enjoyed an Easter egg hunt at the bed-and-breakfast. But Fathke was upset by phone calls with his ex-wife in Washington, according to witnesses.
Then Fathke refused to let his daughter go on an outing. When the others left, he allegedly shot Kelsie.
