Wife-killer must
serve 50 years in prison
A man who shot his estranged wife to death with a shotgun in 1992 because she was leaving him will have to serve 50 years in prison before he can seek parole.
The Hawaii Paroling Authority issued the minimum sentence yesterday for William Kotis, 40, convicted last year of second-degree murder.
The board also set a minimum of 20 years for kidnapping and five years for terroristic threatening, to be served at the same time.
Kotis had asked the board that he be ordered to serve no more than 15 years, the mandatory minimum ordered by the court for using a firearm. He has already served 11 of those years in prison and at the Hawaii State Hospital before being found fit last year to finally go to trial.
The defense did not dispute Kotis shot his wife but argued that Kotis was suffering from an extreme mental and emotional disturbance when he shot Lynn Kotis, 29, in the parking lot of her Waikiki apartment building.