Saito hints he might dispute extradition

The public defender assigned to Hawaii State Hospital escapee Randall Saito asked a California judge for more time to consult with his client, who is now scheduled back in court for an extradition arraignment later this month, according to a statement from the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office.

At Friday’s hearing, Saito was handcuffed and chained at his waist. He asked for a court-appointed attorney and told the judge, “I really don’t want to go back to Hawaii.”

The judge assigned an attorney and continued the hearing until Nov. 27, when Saito will have the choice to admit his identity and agree to extradition back to Hawaii, or to contest extradition, the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office said. The exact time of the extradition, if approved by the court, is being coordinated between law enforcement authorities in California and Hawaii, officials said.

Attorney General Douglas Chin said in a news release, “We respect the process and will work with law enforcement officials in San Joaquin to make sure they have everything they need to ensure Saito’s return to Hawaii for prosecution as soon as possible.”

In Hawaii, Saito will be held as a pretrial felon at the Oahu Community Correctional Center unless he posts $500,000 bail, officials said. If he does post bail, he will be sent back to the State Hospital, they said, emphasizing that Saito will not be released into the community.

“At the time Saito makes his first appearance in court in Hawaii, the state intends to ask the judge to increase bail or have him held without bail,” Chin said.

Meantime, Saito spoke to The Associated Press in a jail near Stockton, before his brief court appearance, when he told a judge he doesn’t want to go back to Hawaii.

“I was surprised that it actually worked,” the 59-year-old said in the jail interview about his escape. “I was expecting almost every leg of the way, I was expecting them to be right around the corner just going to nab me.”

Saito left the hospital grounds Sunday, got a taxi to the airport and took a charter plane to Maui. From there he caught a flight to San Jose.

He refused to say whether anyone helped him escape, where he got the money to travel or how he acquired what he called “a pretty good” fake ID. He insisted that he escaped only to show that he should be free.

“I had no delusions of settling down. That’s grandiose. I was just trying to get as much time as possible under my belt to prove my point that I could be in the community without supervision and not be truculent or violent or stupid,” Saito said.

“I just wanted a track record to throw back into the hospital and say, ‘Look, nobody was there to supervise me. I was out. I didn’t drink. I didn’t drug. I didn’t hurt anybody,’” he said.

Saito said he knew his money would run out at some point.

“But I wanted to extend my time out there as much as possible, maximize my record, my track record, that would be in and of itself irrefutable proof that I was out there doing it,” he said.

Saito was acquitted of murder by reason of insanity in the 1979 killing of Sandra Yamashiro. A 2002 article by The Honolulu Advertiser reported Saito picked his victim at random.