Suspected wife
killer fit for trial,
psychiatrist says

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

Ham or tuna sandwich? Testify or don't testify?

For accused wife-murderer William J. Kotis Jr., these seemingly different sets of choices have something in common: He has the capacity to make decisions on both questions, a psychiatrist told a Circuit Court judge yesterday.

"They have the same cognitive process," Dr. Naleen Andrade testified in a hearing to determine whether Kotis is now mentally fit to proceed with trial.

Kotis is accused in the Sept. 7, 1992, shotgun slaying of his 29-year-old wife, Lynn, in a parking lot near Hobron Lane in Waikiki.

Lynn Kotis, a massage therapist, was estranged from her husband and had a temporary restraining order against him at the time she was killed.

In 1994 a panel of three court-appointed mental health experts found that William Kotis was mentally unfit to stand trial.

Kotis is in custody at the State Hospital, under court order to take anti-psychotic drugs. He has appealed the order to the state Supreme Court.

Circuit Judge Frances Wong is being asked to revisit the question of whether Kotis is fit to proceed to trial and able to assist in his own defense. Experts also are testifying on whether Kotis has been malingering.

Yesterday's hearing was the third day of testimony by a string of experts since the fitness hearing began Oct. 14.

The hearing is scheduled to wrap up on Dec. 8 with at least one more witness scheduled to testify. Wong said she will not rule from the bench at the conclusion of the hearing. Instead, she plans to take the matter under advisement and rule at a later date.

The testimony by Andrade, who was Kotis' treating physician from July until earlier this month, and other experts revealed what life has been like for him during his stay at the State Hospital.

Kotis' ability to argue for more privileges -- such as attending social events off his ward, going to the dining room and taking nature walks -- makes it likely that he can function in the courtroom, she said.

When asked by defense attorney David Bettencourt if deciding to eat a ham or tuna sandwich makes Kotis capable of deciding whether to testify in his own defense, Andrade said the thought process in arriving at both decisions is the same, but the content of the decisions is what makes them different.

The content of conversation also plays a role in Kotis' behavior, she said. When the topic of conversation is not focused on his dead wife or his court proceedings, his thinking is "linear, logical and goal-directed."

But when his wife or his criminal case comes up, his actions are not normal, she said.

Kotis had several outbursts during yesterday's two-hour session.

At one point Bettencourt asked Andrade a question about whether staff at the hospital liked Kotis.

"They hate me," Kotis blurted out.

While Andrade was answering another question, Kotis -- his hair disheveled and wearing shorts and a T-shirt -- said out loud, "She doesn't even know what she's talking about."

On both occasions, Bettencourt reminded his client that he was doing the questioning.

When neuropsychologist Daryl Fujii, who testified about memory and personality, was about to take the witness stand, Kotis remarked: "It's the memory guy. I see him every day.