Hawaii doctor found guilty of trying to kill wife on hike – National
A Honolulu jury returned the verdict against Gerhardt Konig, 47, on Wednesday after a day of deliberations. He was convicted of attempted manslaughter based on extreme mental or emotional disturbance, which carries up to 20 years in prison.
His lawyer, Thomas Otake, said he planned to appeal the verdict but said the defence respected the jury’s verdict.
“We are thankful that they did not convict him of attempted murder, which would have been life in prison,” Otake said. “We look forward to an appeal related to some of the judge’s rulings throughout the case.”
Distraught over her relationship with a co-worker, Konig planned to kill his wife, Arielle Konig, during a weekend trip to Honolulu for her birthday in March 2025, prosecutors said. They said he tried to push her off a cliff and stab her with a syringe, and when that didn’t work, he struck her with a rock. The attack was interrupted by two hikers who heard her cries for help.
Konig, an anesthesiologist, testified that his wife hit him with a rock first and he hit her back in self-defence.
He stood as the jury’s foreperson announced the verdict, then closed his eyes and bowed his head. Arielle Konig was not in court Wednesday.
Gerhardt Konig, left, reacts after the verdict is read while sitting with defence lawyer Thomas Otake, right, in court Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Honolulu.
Jamm Aquino/Honolulu Star-Advertiser via AP, Pool
Konig will be held at the Oahu Community Correctional Center until sentencing on Aug. 13.
Makalapua Atkins, the jury foreperson, told reporters after the verdict was read that deliberations focused on what transpired on the trail.
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She said jurors examined the testimony of the people at the scene to see where they matched up and where there were inconsistencies.
“At the end of the day, when it comes down to it, she was hit in the head. And a head injury can be serious. And that’s a very deadly part of the body,” Atkins said.
Jurors believed the relationship Arielle Konig had with a co-worker was significant enough to cause “an emotional disturbance,” and this affected their verdict, she said.
During closing arguments, the doctor’s lawyer repeatedly sought to cast doubt on Arielle Konig’s account.
“If Gerhardt Konig had wanted to kill his wife and had access to a syringe in a remote area,” Otake suggested to jurors during closing arguments, “wouldn’t he have drugged her and then thrown her from the cliff, rather than having started a scuffle before attempting to fill the syringe as he was wrestling with her?”
Otake suggested that Konig “would use the syringe first.”
The trial began last month, nearly one year after the former couple went on the hike on the Pali Puka trail in Honolulu.
Gerhardt Konig testified that his wife was having an affair, which he confirmed by unlocking her phone while she slept. The subject of the relationship, which Arielle Konig characterized as an “emotional affair” involving flirty messages with a co-worker, came up during the hike.
Arielle, who has since filed for divorce, testified that her husband grabbed her and moved her toward the cliff’s edge, but she threw herself on the ground in an attempt to hold on.
The events leading to Konig’s arrest
Konig was charged with second-degree attempted murder after he allegedly tried to kill his wife by pushing her off a hiking trail and hitting her multiple times on the head with a rock, according to Honolulu police.
The alleged assault took place after Konig wanted to take a selfie while he was on the Honolulu trail with his wife, on March 24, 2025.
The trailhead is a short drive from downtown Honolulu and traverses a ridge with ocean and mountain views.
“She mentioned that while on the trail, Gerhardt was standing close to the edge and asked her to take a selfie with him,” said a Honolulu police declaration.
Arielle allegedly told him she didn’t feel comfortable taking a picture with him that close to the cliff’s edge and began to walk back.
According to the police declaration, Konig yelled at her to come back and, when she refused to return, he pushed her into some bushes, where they began to struggle.
An undated photo of Gerhardt Konig.
Honolulu Police Department
Arielle managed to get away, but Konig then picked up a rock and hit her on the head about 10 times, “while also grabbing the back of her hair and smashing her face into the ground,” the document stated.
The woman crawled to two hikers who heard her yelling, “Help! Help me!” and they called 911 to report the incident.
One witness said she ran to the top of the trail and saw the victim lying on her back with a man on top of her, hitting her on the head. She said that the man stopped attacking the woman once he saw her, according to ABC News.
Arielle told police that she saw “Gerhardt take out two syringes from his bag and attempt to use them on her, but she was able to get away from him.”
The woman sustained multiple large lacerations to her face and head and was taken to a hospital in serious but stable condition.
Konig fled the scene. A police search for the man lasted hours after they closed the state park. Officers arrested him at around 6 p.m. following a brief foot chase.
He pleaded not guilty in court last April to a second-degree attempted murder charge.
The victim’s restraining order petition
Konig allegedly admitted to the crime in a FaceTime call to his adult son shortly after his wife escaped, according to her filed restraining order petition.
During the trial, Konig testified that he called his son to “say goodbye.”
At the time of the incident, the couple’s two young sons, aged two and four, were at home with their nanny and family members on Maui.
According to Arielle, Konig suggested hiking in Honolulu along a trail with “narrow ridge sections with steep drop-offs on both sides,” the petition said.
It also stated that his wife later learned Konig had contacted his adult son, her stepson, on FaceTime and admitted to trying to kill her before saying he wanted to end his own life by jumping off a cliff. In December, he accused his wife of having an affair, “which led to extreme jealousy on his part,” the restraining order petition said. The couple had been in therapy ever since.
On March 28, 2025, a judge signed an order restricting Konig from seeing his wife and their children.
— With files from The Associated Press
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