Rage-fueled killing was unintentional, man’s lawyer says

A drunken man became so enraged by an unwanted homosexual advance that he should be convicted of manslaughter rather than murder in the strangulation of a visiting mainland professor 16 years ago, a defense lawyer told a circuit judge Tuesday.

Jason Lee McCormick, who suffered sexual abuse as a young child and a range of psychiatric problems, never intended to kill Robert T. Henderson, defense lawyer Michael Green told Circuit Judge Richard Perkins at the end of a nonjury trial.

Green cited McCormick’s statement to police that he didn’t know that Henderson would die.

But city Deputy Prosecutor Darrell Wong argued that McCormick overreacted to Henderson’s advances and being drunk does not reduce his crime to manslaughter.

"This is all an act of rage," Wong said.

Perkins heard closing arguments in the stipulated trial in which both sides agreed to allow the judge to render his decision based on police reports, mental health evaluations and McCormick’s lengthy statements to police.

The judge did not indicate when he will issue his ruling.

McCormick, now 38, was 22 when he met the 51-year-old visiting math professor from the University of Pittsburgh in Waikiki.

Both men were intoxicated and ended up at Henderson’s Ilikai apartment. Henderson asked about having sex with young boys and made sexual advances toward McCormick, according to the reports and McCormick’s statements.

Henderson’s body was found July 17, 1996, at the apartment.

"I rape little boys so I must die," was written in blue ink on the buttocks.

The case remained unsolved until McCormick confessed to police in 2008.

Wong said McCormick was a martial arts expert who employed the choke or sleeper hold on Henderson, knowing that it was lethal.

"He really wanted to hurt the guy," Wong said.

Green said his client’s mental condition and the sexual advance led to an extreme emotional disturbance that also warrants a manslaughter conviction.

He said his troubled client was so haunted by the death that he confessed to the previously unsolved crime in 2008, which led to the murder charge.

Murder carries a mandatory life term with the possibility of parole.

Manslaughter carries a maximum 20-year term. It was increased from 10 years just a month before Henderson’s death.