Accused freeway shooter to plead insanity

Accused killer and freeway shooter Toby Stangel plans to use the insanity defense when he goes on trial later this month for murder, his lawyer told a state judge Wednesday.

Attorney John Schum also told Circuit Judge Glenn Kim that Stangel plans to use as other defenses extreme mental or emotional distress — sometimes referred to as temporary insanity — and intoxication.

Kim told Schum voluntary intoxication is not a legal defense.

Honolulu police say Stangel, 30, went on a 17-minute early-morning shooting spree on June 3, 2011, killing one Oahu motorist, injuring two others and firing at four other people, including two police officers.

He is facing one count of second-degree murder, three counts of first-degree attempted murder,
four counts of second-degree attempted murder, eight firearm charges and charges of possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Stangel asked Kim on Wednesday to throw out a statement he gave to two police detectives, as well as gunshot residue evidence police collected from him after his arrest.

Kim refused to throw out the gunshot evidence because, he said, even though police swabbed Stangel’s hands and took fingernail scrapings without a warrant, the search was incident to a lawful arrest and was made to protect evidence that can be easily destroyed.

He did, however, throw out the statement Stangel gave police on June 4, 2011, because he found that Stangel did not voluntarily agree to be interviewed.

Stangel testified Wednesday that Honolulu police Detectives Deena Thoemmes and Taro Nakamura told him he had to give them a statement before he could make a telephone call or see a letter his girlfriend handed police after his arrest.

Thoemmes and Nakamura testified that they never mentioned to Stangel anything about a letter from his girlfriend and that Stangel did not ask them about making a phone call.

Kim said he doesn’t necessarily believe everything Stangel said, but also found Thoemmes’ and Nakamura’s testimonies not entirely credible.

“It strikes me as perfectly reasonable and understandable that (Stangel) would say, ‘Can I make a phone call?’ And that both of the detectives say he never said a thing about a phone call, I find that pretty suspect,” Kim said.

Deputy Prosecutor Dwight Nadamoto told Kim he would have liked to have the statement to present to jurors. But he said he wouldn’t call the statement a key piece of evidence.

“I don’t think my case would necessarily fall” without it, Nadamoto said.

To convince a state jury that he was insane, or suffering from a mental defect or disorder, at the time of the shootings, Stangel will have to overcome the opinions of at least two of three court-appointed mental health experts who examined him last year.

Psychological consultant Olaf K. Gitter and psychiatric consultant Dr. Sharon M. Tisza said in their reports to the court that Stangel was not suffering from a mental illness at the time of the spree. They also found Stangel mentally fit to stand trial.

The report of the third mental health expert has been filed with the court under seal and is not available.

Gitter and Tisza also said Stangel told them that he wanted to get high and he had taken cocaine, heroin, Xanax and marijuana, and drank beer, in addition to taking his prescribed pain medication, on the day in question.

The first shooting happened at the corner of Kapahulu and Harding avenues. That’s where police said Stangel stepped out of his car and shot at but missed a motorist waiting for the traffic light to change.

Police said Stangel then walked up to 54-year-old Tammy Nguyen, who was sitting behind the wheel of her family van, and fatally shot her in the head. Nguyen’s daughter, 16, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, was not injured.

Police said Stangel then drove west on the H-1 freeway, where he shot and injured a 24-year-old woman driving a pickup truck, then shot and injured a 38-year-old man who slowed his sport utility vehicle to see what was going on.

Stangel then fired at two police officers conducting a traffic stop on Moanalua Freeway near the Aiea off­ramp, police said. The officers later found Stangel in his car stopped on H-1 near the Kaamilo Street overpass.

The state says police found drugs, drug paraphernalia, a hunting knife and brass knuckles in the car and a 9 mm semi-automatic firearm with a large-capacity magazine just outside the car.