Teen committed to State
Hospital for killing child

The mentally retarded Puna youth was found
unfit to stand trial for the 6-year-old's death

HILO >> A mentally retarded Big Island boy who was 14 when he killed a 6-year-old girl in 2001 was committed yesterday to Hawaii State Hospital, possibly for the rest of his life, prosecutors said.

Mark Davis Jr., 17, was committed to the Kaneohe facility after he waived Family Court jurisdiction and admitted the facts of the investigation proved he killed and sexually assaulted Kauilani Lucas-Tadeo, First Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Charlene Iboshi said.

Without the waiver, Davis would have been released from custody when he turned 19.

Kauilani, a first-grader at Keonepoko Elementary School, was reported missing after returning home from school Sept. 27, 2001.

Police and fire rescue personnel found her body about two hours later in a vacant house about 150 yards from her family's home in the Hawaiian Beaches subdivision. An autopsy revealed that she had died from a blow to the head.

Davis, who lived in the same subdivision and was a seventh-grade special-education student at Pahoa Intermediate School, has been held in custody since he was arrested a few days after the killing and charged with second-degree murder and two counts of first-degree sexual assault.

Family Court Judge Ben Gaddis ruled in 2002 that Davis was unfit to stand trial at the time because of his mental retardation and other conditions, Iboshi said.

Before the killing, Davis had been diagnosed as being mentally retarded, functioning as a child 7 to 9 years old with limited impulse control, Iboshi said.

Mental health evaluations conducted after Davis' arrest found his ability to conform to the law was substantially impaired at the time that the crimes were committed, Iboshi said.

Expert evaluations determined it is unlikely Davis will be released from a secured setting in the foreseeable future, she said.

"The family of the victim has been kept informed about the case since the arrest of the minor, and has agreed that Davis' lifelong supervision and custody ensures the protection of the public," Iboshi said.