A doctor in Maui, Hawaii, was found guilty of attempted manslaughter on Wednesday for trying to kill his wife during a hike on her birthday last year.
After the jury deliberated for more than eight hours, they spared Gerhardt Konig, 47, of the more serious charge of attempted murder.
Prosecutors had accused the anesthesiologist of trying to push his wife, Arielle Konig, near the edge of a cliff, trying to stab her with a syringe and then beating her with a rock during the hike on the nearby island of Oahu.
When the verdict was read, Konig closed his eyes and bowed his head, later covering his face with his hand, according to NBC News.
Konig could face up to 20 years behind bars and will be sentenced on 13 August. His legal team said they would be appealing the verdict.
Both Konig and his wife testified during the trial, giving separate accounts of what happened on the birthday hike on the Pali Puka Trail in March 2025.
Arielle Konig said they had gone to Oahu to celebrate her birthday and had been working on their marriage after her husband found flirty messages she had exchanged with a coworker.
Her husband pushed her near the edge of a cliff, and then tried to stab her with a syringe before hitting her on the head with a rock, she testified. She believed he wanted to knock her unconscious before pushing her over the edge.
Gerhardt claimed his wife attacked him first and he was acting in self defence.
A pair of hikers who stumbled upon the couple testified at the trial that they saw Gerhardt hitting his wife with a rock, her face covered with blood.
She said she suffered “severe complex scalp lacerations” from the beating.
Gerhardt ran from the scene when police came and was arrested after an hours-long manhunt.
Gerhardt’s 20 year-old son said his father told him during a FaceTime call after the incident that “my stepmom had been cheating on him, and that he tried to kill her”, according to the BBC’s US partner CBS News.
The jury foreperson, told NBC News after the verdict that they decided to convict Konig of a lesser charge of attempted manslaughter based upon extreme mental or emotional disturbance because “we didn’t feel the evidence would uphold the fact that he intended on murdering her”.
By BBC News
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