@meghannmcuniff: A lawyer defending a Hawaii man accused of attempting to murder his wife quoted Mark Twain in his closing argument yesterday. "Mark Twain was giving a speech once to some young people about the dangers of being untruthful. And what he said was, 'You ought to be very careful about lying, because once caught, you can never again be in the eyes of the good and the pure what you were before,'" Thomas Otake said. Otake said jurors "give people the benefit of the doubt" but witnesses "lie about different things." "They deceive in the eyes of the good and pure of all of you, you can't look at her the same again. It's dangerous. It's dangerous," Otake said. He referred to Arielle Konig asking her primary care physician to add traumatic head injury to her records. "If she's gonna manipulate her PCP doctor, if she's gonna be deceptive to the detective, do you think for a second she would hesitate to be that way with you?" Otake said. Deputy Prosecutor Joel Garner began his rebuttal by also quoting Twain. "Mark Twain also said, 'If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything,'" Garner said. He told jurors to "think back to the defendant's testimony." "Think back to every time he was asked on cross-examination something that made him look bad, something that made him look like he had a motive, something that was incriminating. Think back to every single time the defendant was asked something like that, and what was his answer? 'I don't recall,'" Garner said. "Arielle Konig was able to sit here and testify in front of you for three reasons. First: She had her intuition. She saw the defendant looking at her feet on that trail. She saw the defendant tracking her every move. She saw the defendant making sure he saw where she was, and that's what made her feel uneasy. It was her intuition. Second: She fought back. She fought for her life that day. And the defense wanted to characterize it as a full conversation, but ... it was Arielle begging for her life from the defendant. It was Arielle saying, 'Think about the kids.' It was Arielle's thinking, saying, 'Nobody's gonna believe this was an accident,'" Garner said. Garner said Arielle was "trying to reason with somebody who is trying to kill her.” “And the third reason — and the most important reason — that Arielle was here to testify to you is Amanda Morris and Sarah Buchsbaum hearing a call for help, going forward, looking at what they saw and helping Arielle out," Garner said. You can watch some of Morris' testimony here @Meghann Cuniff and some of Buchsbaum's testimony here @Meghann Cuniff, including her 911 call. Jurors deliberated about three hours on Tuesday and are to continue deliberating today (Wednesday, April 8) at 9 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time, which is 12 p.m. PST and 3 p.m. EST. #law #crime #court

Meghann Cuniff

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Wednesday 08 April 2026 17:08:46 GMT