The accused killer of a visiting University of Pittsburgh professor said he killed Robert T. Henderson in 1996 after Henderson expressed his preference for young boys and made sexual advances toward him.
Jason Lee McCormick, 38, made that statement to all three mental health examiners appointed by a state judge to assess McCormick’s fitness to stand trial and his capacity to understand right from wrong at the time of the alleged murder, according to the examiners’ reports.
All three examiners say McCormick is mentally fit to stand trial and that he was not suffering from any mental defect or disorder at the time of Henderson’s murder that would have prevented him from understanding right from wrong.
Circuit Judge Richard Perkins has scheduled McCormick’s murder trial for September.
McCormick has agreed to a nonjury trial in which he will not dispute any evidence presented by the prosecutor.
McCormick’s lawyer, Michael Green, said his client does not expect aquittal by reason of insanity.
"The guy’s going down on something," Green said.
But instead of murder, Green said he believes the judge should find McCormick guilty of manslaughter or assault.
McCormick told the mental health examiners that he met Henderson, 51, in Waikiki. He said they drank together at several bars before Henderson invited him to his Ilikai condominium for more drinks.
He said Henderson talked about his interest in younger guys and asked him if he knew where to find young boys who would fool around for money, the reports say.
McCormick said Henderson touched him on his lower back, his shoulder, then the front of his body. When he turned around, he said, he saw Henderson was undressed. That’s when he snapped, he said.
"When he touched me I felt scared, and I reacted," he said.
McCormick told police the incident reminded him of being molested by his stepfather when he was 2 or 3 years old.
He said he rejected thoughts of throwing Henderson off the balcony for fear of drawing attention, or rendering him unconscious through a wrestling maneuver because he wanted to hurt him. He said put Henderson in a chokehold and snapped his neck. After killing Henderson, McCormick said, he washed the wineglasses they had used, took two Rolex watches from the apartment and left the building being careful to avoid security cameras.
Police found Henderson’s nude, decomposing body in his 14th-floor apartment July 17, 1996. The Honolulu Medical Examiner said Henderson was hanged or strangled.
The autopsy says the phrase "I rape little boys so I must die" was written on Henderson’s buttocks. It also says a ballpoint pen was stuck in the back of Henderson’s left thigh.
McCormick said he called his girlfriend on the mainland and told her what happened but that he didn’t think she believed him.
He said that over the next 12 years he plummeted into alcoholism and depression because of the guilt he felt over what he did.
"It’s been a burden all these years," McCormick said.
He said he tried to confess to police in 2005 but that they didn’t take him seriously.
In July 2008, while in Queen’s Medical Center’s Kekela unit for psychiatric patients, McCormick called police to confess to Henderson’s murder. After his hospital discharge in October 2008, he went to Honolulu Police Department headquarters to further confess because he didn’t think police believed him the first time.
