The jury in State Department special agent Christopher Deedy’s murder trial will not have the option of convicting him on the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Circuit Judge Karen Ahn said Tuesday that neither the prosecution nor the defense had asked her to instruct the jury that it could consider a manslaughter verdict.
"I don’t think there’s any evidence to support reckless manslaughter," Ahn said during a hearing to finalize her instructions to the panel.
The latest development sets up an all-or-nothing case for both sides.
The jury’s only options will be to convict Deedy of second-degree murder or acquit and clear him of any criminal wrongdoing.
A conviction would carry an automatic prison term.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday with the prosecution and defense each alloted about an hour and 45 minutes.
The jury will begin deliberations as early as Thursday, after closing arguments.
Deedy, 29, who was here to provide security for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, is charged with murdering Kollin Elderts, 23, of Kailua the early morning of Nov. 5, 2011, at the McDonald’s on Kuhio Avenue.
Second-degree murder carries a mandatory life prison term with possibility of parole. The charge is defined under Hawaii law as "intentionally or knowingly" killing another person.
Manslaughter is "recklessly" causing the death of another person.
In Deedy’s case, manslaughter would have carried a mandatory prison term of up to 20 years.
Deedy is also charged with a companion count of using a firearm to commit a felony, which would make him ineligible for probation if convicted.
The two charges are so intertwined that the judge and lawyers agree the jury will either convict or acquit Deedy on both counts.
The closing arguments are expected to highlight key points in each side’s version of the 20 days of testimony that ended Thursday and spanned five weeks.
The prosecution’s case portrayed a drunken Deedy who, while armed, spent the night and early morning with two friends at five Chinatown and Waikiki bars before going to McDonald’s.
According to the prosecution, Deedy, an agent for a little less than two years, did not have to intervene after seeing an oral exchange between Elderts and customer Michel Perrine. But Deedy threatened to shoot Elderts in the face and later kicked him before the Kailua man and the agent got into a struggle, according to the prosecution.
During the altercation, Deedy fired the fatal shot to Elderts’ chest, according to the prosecution.
Under questioning by the prosecutor, Deedy testified that he knew his shots could kill Elderts.
Deedy’s defense is that he fired to protect himself and his friend Adam Gutowski, who the agent said was being kicked in the head by Elderts and his friend Shane Medeiros.
He testified he went to Elderts after seeing him bully Perrine but that Elderts became angry and even more upset when, the agent said, he displayed his badge and credentials.
Deedy said he kicked Elderts to ward him off but that Elderts later "spear-tackled" the agent to the floor.
Deedy said that when he got up and saw his friend being beaten, he relied on his law enforcement training in ordering Elderts to stop and drawing the gun but that Elderts attacked him.
Deedy said he was "fighting for his life" on the floor with Elderts straddling him and punching him when the agent fired three shots.
Elderts had been drinking, and his body had cocaine and marijuana in it, according to the autopsy report.
Hawaii law recognizes a second type of manslaughter, an affirmative defense that the defendant was under the "influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance."
Under the law the defense reduces murder to manslaughter. That type of manslaughter conviction also carries the same maximum 20-year sentence.
Ahn also was not asked to instruct the jury on the affirmative manslaughter defense.
