Opening statements to begin in trial of doctor accused of trying to kill wife on Hawaii hiking trail
Stock image of gavel. (Witthaya Prasongsin/Getty Images)
(HONOLULU) — Opening statements are expected to begin Thursday in the trial of a doctor accused of trying to kill his wife on a Hawaii hiking trail last year.
Gerhardt Konig has been charged with second-degree attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
The trial is set to get underway at 9 a.m. local time in Honolulu.
The anesthesiologist is accused of beating his wife, Arielle Konig, with a rock on the Pali Puka Trail on Oahu on March 24, 2025.
He allegedly pushed her and hit her in the head with a rock approximately 10 times while grabbing the back of her head and smashing her face into the ground, according to the probable cause statement for his arrest. He also allegedly attempted to use two syringes on her, according to the document.
Arielle Konig suffered injuries, including large lacerations to her face and head and was hospitalized in serious condition following the alleged attack, according to the probable cause document.
Gerhardt Konig has been in jail since his arrest. A judge denied his motion to dismiss the indictment last month.
Arielle Konig’s attorney has previously told reporters that she intends to testify during the trial. She filed for divorce in May 2025, online court records show.
In a petition for a restraining order filed shortly after the arrest, she said Gerhardt Konig had previously accused her of having an affair, “which led to extreme jealousy on his part” and led him to try to “control and monitor all of my communications.”
Konig worked as an anesthesiologist on Maui. Following his arrest, Maui Health said his medical staff privileges at Maui Memorial Medical Center have been suspended pending investigation.
In a screen grab from a video released by Secretary Kristi Noem, the US Coast Guard apprehends an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela, on Dec. 20, 2025. (@Se_Noem)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. is still actively pursuing a sanctioned oil tanker linked to Venezuela, but that he’s confident the vessel will be seized.
“It’s moving along and we’ll end up getting it,” Trump said while unveiling a new class of battleships from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. “Yeah, we’re actually pursuing it. Can you imagine? Yeah, because it came from the wrong location. It came out of Venezuela, and it was sanctioned.”
The U.S. Coast Guard over the weekend was “in active pursuit of a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion,” an official told ABC News.
“It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order,” the official said at the time.
The tanker, named Bella 1, was not filled with cargo and en route to get oil when U.S. authorities attempted to board it, an official told ABC News on Monday.
Trump said the United States will keep the oil and ships after seizing sanctioned tankers.
“We’re keeping it. We’re keeping the ships also,” he said.
On President Nicholas Maduro, Trump said it would be “smart” for him to step down when asked if the administration’s ultimate goal in Venezuela is to force him from power.
“Well, I think it probably would. I can’t tell him. That’s up to him what he wants to do. I think it would be smart for him to do that. But again, we’re going to find out,” Trump said. Though the president also warned, “if he plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’s ever able to play tough.”
The Bella 1 tanker fled into the Atlantic Ocean and was not flying a legitimate national flag, giving the Coast Guard the jurisdiction to attempt to seize it.
These details were first reported by the New York Times.
The action came after the U.S. Coast Guard seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Saturday, just ten days after the seizure of a sanctioned oil tanker.
Unlike that first vessel seized, the tanker seized Saturday is not on any sanctions list maintained by the U.S., EU, U.K. or U.N., according to Kpler, a data firm that tracks transportation and logistics networks.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed Saturday’s operation in a post on social media, saying that the Coast Guard “apprehended” the tanker with support from the Department of Defense in a pre-dawn action. She said the tanker had last made port in Venezuela.
“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,” Noem said in the post. “We will find you, and we will stop you.”
Last week, President Trump threatened to impose what he called “a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers” traveling to and from Venezuela – a move that could devastate the Venezuelan economy, since oil exports are the lifeblood of Maduro’s regime.
In response to Trump’s announcement, Maduro said Venezuela would continue to trade oil and that Trump’s “intention” is regime change.
“This will just not happen, never, never, never – Venezuela will never be a colony of anything or anyone, never,” Maduro said.
The U.S. has amassed the largest military presence in the Caribbean in decades, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier.
The Pentagon also has so far struck 28 alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing at least 100 people, without providing any public evidence that the boats were carrying illegal drugs or identifying those killed.
LONDON — U.S. Southern Command announced on Wednesday that American forces struck another alleged drug vessel in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people the command described as “narco-terrorists.”
Wednesday’s strike was the 26th since such operations began on Sept. 2. The total death toll as reported by the Pentagon now stands at 99 people.
SOUTHCOM said the “lethal kinetic strike” was launched at the direction of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Joint Task Force Southern Spear.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the statement added. “A total of four male narco-terrorists were killed, and no U.S. military forces were harmed.”
A video posted alongside the statement showed a vessel in motion before it was hit by an explosion. The video then cut to show a stationary vessel on fire.
Luigi Mangione during a pretrial hearing at New York State Supreme Court in New York, US, on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. Mangione faces state and federal charges in the killing nearly a year ago of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Photographer: Jefferson Siegel/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Two more Altoona, Pennsylvania, police officers took the stand Friday on Day 7 of accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione’s evidence suppression hearing as his attorneys work to get evidence excluded from his state murder case.
The marathon hearing will determine what evidence will used against him when he goes on trial on charges of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk last year.
Testimony has centered around what transpired at the Altoona McDonald’s where Mangione was apprehended five days after the shooting.
Altoona police officer Samuel McCoy testified Friday that he knew whatever was happening at the McDonald’s on East Plank Road was serious when he saw his lieutenant, William Hanelly, putting on his bulletproof vest on on his way out of the stationhouse.
“Lt. Hanelly leaving with a vest on, that means something’s happening,” McCoy testified. “Significant.”
McCoy walked to a seated Luigi Mangione in the McDonald’s and immediately asked if he had any weapons.
“With the information I had that he was a homicide suspect, it’s very possible that he had weapons or feel desperate which makes people do erratic things,” McCoy testified.
McCoy then noticed a backpack on the floor and is seen on body camera footage moving it.
“I asked him, ‘Is this your property?’ He indicated to me it was,” McCoy testified. He said he moved the bag “so that if he decides he wants to make a dramatic exit, per se, he doesn’t have access to any weapons.”
McCoy is then heard on camera asking Mangione, “Do you know what all this nonsense is about?” The officer said he wanted to gauge Mangione’s reaction.
“Through my experience, if somebody is being questioned and they’re not involved they’ll have one type of reaction and if they are involved, they’ll have a different type of reaction,” McCoy testified.
“I guess we’ll find out,” Mangione is heard answering.
When McCoy asked how he had arrived at the McDonalds, Mangione indicated he did not want to speak.
“I said, ‘That’s fine.’ I did not ask him any more questions,” McCoy testified.
On cross-examination, McCoy said those questions were meant to elicit information.
The defense has argued that police waited too long to read Mangione his Miranda rights and that the police actions amounted to overkill.
McCoy conceded on cross-examination Mangione was largely compliant.
“None of the actions he took that day were frightening, made me fear for my life,” McCoy said.
On re-direct examination, he testified that officers had “established control” of the scene, but that going in he said “there is serious safety concerns,” given Mangione was suspected of committing a homicide.
Sgt. Eric Heuston, who oversaw the search of Mangione at the police station and helped catalog the items seized from him, including cash, clothing, a passport and a handgun, testified that Mangione was carrying “a good bit of property” and “over $7,000” when he was arrested.
All of it was turned over to the NYPD pursuant to a search warrant Heuston drafted, “based on the fact that it could be of value to New York,” Heuston testified.
With Heuston on the witness stand, prosecutors showed three dozen evidence photos, including a full-body picture of Mangione after his strip search in which he stands awkwardly with his shoulders slumped forward, wearing jeans and a blue long-sleeve shirt.
Heuston testified on cross-examination that he read some of Mangione’s writings and decided which ones might have evidentiary value to the NYPD. He’s heard on body-worn camera footage reading Mangione’s “to do” list over the phone to an NYPD contact and listing items that indicated he “more likely than not” was the shooting suspect wanted for the murder of Brian Thompson.
Defense attorney Karen Agnifilo suggested those actions were improper, but as she peppered Heuston with questions about inventory lists, evidence seizures and search warrant drafts, Heuston smiled and said, “I think we’re getting confused here.”
The hearing, which will continue into next week, was adjourned until Tuesday. A written decision from Judge Gregory Carro expected in January.
On Thursday, Lt. Hanelly testified that after the initial call came in he offered a responding officer a free sandwich from his favorite local place, Luigetta’s, if he actually collared the suspected killer.
“If you get the New York City shooter I’ll buy you Luigetta’s for lunch,” Hanelly said he texted patrolman Joseph Detwiler. The text included a wink emoji because, Hanelly testified, it seemed “preposterous” to him that the suspect could actually be sitting in a fast food place five hours away from the scene of the shooting.
