A Schofield Barracks soldier standing trial for attempted murder was defending himself when he repeatedly stabbed a Waikiki prostitute in December 2012, the soldier’s lawyer told a state jury Friday.
The lawyer said Solomon D.M. Battle has permanent brain damage and, as a result, was unable to control his response to being attacked.
Battle, 25, has been in custody since his arrest Dec. 23, 2012. However, he remains in the Army as an enlisted soldier, his lawyer Myles Breiner said.
Breiner said the prostitute had agreed to have sex with Battle and took him to a stairwell in the Waikiki Town Center on Kuhio Avenue. When the prostitute learned that Battle had only $40, he said she became enraged and attacked Battle.
He said Battle suffered scratches on his face and neck from the attack.
"(His) reaction to that, he pulled the knife and repeatedly stuck her," Breiner said.
Deputy City Prosecutor Scott Bell told the jury Friday that Loretta Mobley suffered stab wounds to her face, head, neck, shoulder, chest, abdomen, leg, buttocks and back.
Mobley recovered from her injuries but has not agreed to participate in prosecuting Battle.
Breiner said at the time of the stabbing, Battle was suffering from an undiagnosed injury to the frontal lobe of his brain.
"Because of (Battle’s) organic brain syndrome, he lacked the impulse control that ordinary people have," he said.
Bell told the jury that Battle was not suffering from any mental disease or defect at the time of the stabbing that would prevent him from distinguishing right from wrong and to follow the law.
A state judge deemed Battle fit to stand trial in April 2013 based on the findings of three court-appointed mental health experts. The experts had examined Battle on his ability to understand court proceedings and assist in his legal defense. They also examined Battle to determine whether he should be held legally responsible for his actions.
Both sides are expected to present jurors with their own experts regarding Battle’s condition.
Breiner said Battle’s brain damage is the result of the beatings he suffered at the hands of his father from the time he was an infant until he was in elementary school when his parents divorced. As a result, he said, Battle has been in and out of treatment facilities and on and off medications.
He said Battle took and failed to achieve a minimum score on the military entrance examination multiple times. Battle was able to enlist in the Army only after a recruiter apparently changed his score, Breiner said.
Battle continued to have difficulty after entering the Army, having to take basic training twice and being denied deployment because of his inability to do his job as an infantryman and to follow orders, Breiner said. At the time of the stabbing, Breiner said, the Army was attempting to discharge Battle.
Honolulu police said a witness saw Battle follow Mobley to the Waikiki Town Center. Other witnesses said they heard screams from the stairwell and then saw Battle run out. They found a bloodied Mobley on the landing at the top of the stairwell near the second-floor entrance to Mad Dog Saloon.
Police followed the trail of blood from the stairwell and eventually found Battle in a women’s restroom on the 11th floor of the nearby Miramar at Waikiki hotel. He was standing on the toilet of a locked handicap-accessible stall.
Bell said Battle had Mobley’s blood on his head, hands and clothing. Police found a bloody knife, wrapped in a Waikiki Gun Shop poster, in Battle’s pocket. It was Mobley’s blood on the knife blade, Bell said.
