Accused ax murderer heard voices

Police say he told them that is what prompted the attack on his parents

A WAIPAHU MAN accused of hacking his father to death with a hatchet early Saturday and critically injuring his mother told police voices taunted him to do it.

Mark Kawakami, 43, said he had removed the hatchet from the trunk of his father's station wagon, parked at their Niulii Street home, and confronted his parents before going to his room, homicide Detective Randal Nakamura testified yesterday in Honolulu District Court.

In his room, he heard voices basically calling him "chicken" and saying "do it, do it," so he went back to the living room and attacked his father, then his mother, Nakamura testified.

Stanford Kawakami, the eldest of four Kawakami sons, testified he awoke about 2.30 a.m. to shouting in the home he and Mark shared with their parents. He said he opened his bedroom door to find his brother brandishing a hatchet.

"He said he just killed Mom and Dad and they bleeding to death. 'Look the blood on the blade,'" said Stanford Kawakami. He testified that he retreated inside his room to retrieve a hunting knife. "He was calling me out, said he was gonna kill me."

Five to 10 minutes later, his brother left in their father's station wagon, and Stanford Kawakami called 911 and checked on his parents.

His father was lying on his back, bleeding, in the middle of the living room floor. His mother was sitting upright on the couch, her head tilted to one side with blood coming from the back of her neck, he said.

Kawakami said his brother suffered from a mental illness for many years, possibly since high school, and was seeing a psychologist. He apparently was prescribed medication, but Stanford Kawakami said he never saw his brother take it.

He said he suspected his brother used crystal methamphetamine and believed that his brother was asking their father earlier for money so that he could purchase "ice."

Other than hearing his brother talk to himself when he was high on drugs, Stanford Kawakami testified he could not identify other manifestations of his brother's illness. His brother had threatened him with weapons on other occasions, and he has had to defend himself, he said.

Sueo Kawakami, 79, died of "sharp force injuries to the head and brain" consistent with a hatchet, said Kanthi De Alwis, Honolulu medical examiner.

A Queen's Medical Center doctor who treated Janet Kawakami, 76, said she suffered a broken neck from a blow to the back of her head, Detective Nakamura said. Her condition has improved to guarded from critical, but she faces possible paralysis and infection, he said.

District Judge Lono Lee found there was probable cause that Kawakami committed the crimes he is charged with, and bound the case over to Circuit Court.

Kawakami will be arraigned Dec. 5 on second-degree murder, first- and second-degree attempted murder and first-degree terroristic threatening charges. He remains in custody in lieu of $100,000 bail.