{"id":207006,"date":"2026-04-09T02:03:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T02:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/verdict-reached-in-trial-of-maui-doctor-accused-of-trying-to-kill-wife-during-birthday-hike-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T02:03:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T02:03:24","slug":"verdict-reached-in-trial-of-maui-doctor-accused-of-trying-to-kill-wife-during-birthday-hike-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/verdict-reached-in-trial-of-maui-doctor-accused-of-trying-to-kill-wife-during-birthday-hike-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Verdict reached in trial of Maui doctor accused of trying to kill wife during birthday hike – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Hawaii doctor charged with trying to kill his wife during an Oahu birthday hike last year was convicted Wednesday of attempted manslaughter based upon extreme mental or emotional disturbance.
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The unanimous verdict came after the Honolulu County jury deliberated for more than eight hours. It did not convict Dr. Gerhardt Konig <\/a>on the higher charge of second-degree attempted murder.
Konig closed his eyes and bowed his head when the verdict was read. When he sat down, he covered his face with his hand and his attorney put a consoling arm on his shoulder.
He faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on Aug. 13. Konig will be held at the O\u2019ahu Community Correctional Center until sentencing.
The conviction <\/strong>caps a roughly three-week trial during which Konig<\/a> and Arielle Konig<\/a> offered sharply contrasting accounts of the events of March 24, 2025 \u2014 her birthday.
After the verdict outside the courtroom, the doctor’s defense attorney said, \u201cwe look forward to appealing.\u201d
\u201cWe are thankful that they did not convict him of attempted murder, which would have been life in prison,\u201d Thomas Otake said, thanking the jury.
Prosecuting attorney Steve Alm called Wednesday’s verdict “a good day for the good guys,\u201d while thanking the jury, Arielle Konig, the witnesses who helped her and investigators in a written statement.
In his closing argument, prosecutor Joel Garner said Gerhardt Konig was “obsessed” with his wife’s emotional affair with a co-worker when he tried to shove her from a cliff on the Pali Puka Trail, northeast of Honolulu.
When that failed, Garner said, he tried to stab her with a syringe and bashed her head with a rock. The attack ended when two hikers came upon the scene, he said.
\u201cThe only thing that got him to stop was being caught red-handed,\u201d Garner said.
Gerhardt Konig\u2019s attorney, Thomas Otake, described the allegations as \u201cshe said, he said\u201d and a \u201ctheory in search of facts.\u201d On the stand, Gerhardt Konig denied trying to push Arielle Konig or inject her with a syringe and said he acted in self-defense, striking her with a rock after she tried to push him from the trail.
\u201cHe had a reflex,\u201d Otake said in his closing argument. \u201cHe reacted, and then he felt horrible about it.\u201d
The attack occurred three months after Gerhardt Konig discovered his wife had been having the emotional affair. They\u2019d gone to counseling, Arielle Konig testified, and appeared to be mending the damage she said she\u2019d caused to their relationship.
Gerhardt Konig testified that he was \u201cdevastated\u201d by the affair. He accused his wife of minimizing the breach and refusing to take accountability for it.
The husband and wife, who married in 2018, each testified about what happened during the hike.
Arielle Konig said the incident occurred after her husband asked her to pose for a cliffside selfie. She became nervous about the photo\u2019s location, she said, and when she tried to move past him, he grabbed her by the arm and pushed her back.
A struggle ensued, Arielle Konig said, and her husband \u2014 an anesthesiologist \u2014 came at her with a syringe and told her to hold still.
She batted it away, she said, and after he briefly appeared to calm down, he began bashing her head with a rock.
\u201c\u2018Nobody\u2019s going to hear you out here,\u2019\u201d she recalled him saying. “‘Nobody\u2019s coming to save you.\u2019”
Other hikers on the trail called 911 and said they saw a man trying to kill a woman, according to audio of the call presented in court. Police body camera video played during the proceedings showed the women assisting Arielle Konig, whose face was covered in blood.
An emergency doctor who tended to Arielle Konig testified that she sustained a skull laceration that reached the bone. Pieces of rock were embedded in the wound, he said.
The defendant took the stand for two days, telling the jury that the altercation happened after he and his wife had an argument about the co-worker with whom she had the affair.
Arielle Konig tried to push him from the cliff, Gerhardt Konig said. She pulled him to the ground, grabbing his testicles and striking him hard in the face with a rock, he testified.
Gerhardt Konig said he wrestled the rock away from his wife and hit her with it twice.
A pathologist who testified for the defense described Arielle Konig\u2019s wound as a \u201csoft-tissue injury\u201d that did not cause a bone fracture or bleeding around the brain. \u201cThis is not a life-threatening injury,\u201d said the pathologist, Dr. Jonathan Arden.
Gerhardt Konig denied trying to inject her with a syringe and said that while he felt horrible about what he did, he’d acted in self-defense.
Afterward, he called his son<\/a> and said he planned to take his own life. During the call, Emile Konig testified, his father told him that his wife was cheating on him and that he’d tried to kill her.
Gerhardt Konig disputed part of that claim in his testimony, saying the word “kill” may have been used but that he didn’t mean it as a confession.
Gerhardt Konig was arrested nearly eight hours later, Garner said, <\/strong>after authorities launched a manhunt. Gerhardt Konig testified that he decided to turn himself in.
Tim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
Marlene Lenthang is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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