The lawyer for Randall Saito says if the state wants to find out how the acquitted killer escaped from the Hawaii State Hospital, state lawyers should offer Saito a deal.
“If I were them I’d be offering everything,” said attorney Michael Green.
State Circuit Judge Colette Garibaldi found Saito, 59, mentally fit Thursday to stand trial for escape and scheduled the trial for June. Garibaldi made the finding based on the reports of three court-appointed mental health examiners. Neither Green nor Deputy State Attorney General Kory Young objected to the reports.
Green said the experts also said they believe Saito is legally responsible for his actions when he walked off the Kaneohe psychiatric hospital grounds, caught a taxi to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, took a chartered flight to Maui and then hopped on a commercial flight to California.
“If I was the attorney general of the state, I’d do everything I could to make sure that there’s some punishment to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again,” Green said.
The state Department of Health, which operates the State Hospital, says the attorney general is conducting an independent administrative investigation into Saito’s escape and that six hospital employees remain off the job pending the investigation’s findings.
The Health Department also says it has taken a number of corrective measures, including the installation of interior fencing, relocation of a guard post to improve visibility, suspension of most patient off-grounds privileges, reduction in the number of patient transports and requiring all patients leaving a secure area to wear ankle restraints, wrist-to-waist restraints or both.
The department says it also has increased the frequency of unannounced unit searches and is exploring the use of GPS monitoring units.
Green says he doesn’t think Saito will get off scot-free, and once Saito is convicted, he expects the Hawaii Paroling Authority to require Saito to serve close to the maximum five-year prison term for escape. He said the state could recommend a shorter minimum.
After Saito completes his prison term, he will be returned to the State Hospital. Green says that’s where Saito’s fight for release from the State Hospital begins.
Saito has said he escaped to prove that he can live in the community without supervision. He had not been allowed off hospital grounds without an escort. Saito had been in the State Hospital since 1981 after being acquitted by reason of insanity of a brutal murder in the Ala Moana Center parking lot. Police said he shot Sandra Yamashiro with a pellet gun in 1979, then repeatedly stabbed the 29-year-old woman. Saito was diagnosed with sexual sadism and necrophilia.
