Meghann Cuniff@meghanncuniff
A Hawaii man accused of trying to murder his wife on a hiking trail last year told jurors today that his wife attacked him first.
Gerhardt Konig said he was at the edge of the cliffside Pali Puka Trail when "I felt a shove" and nearly fell over the cliff. He realized his wife, Arielle Konig, had pushed him, and he said he was "like what the f*** was that?"
"I was like, just asking her, like, you know, what was that? And started walking towards her, because at this point she was like five or 10 feet away from me," Konig testified today (Wednesday, April 1).
"I turn around and I'm asking her, like, what the hell's you know, what the f*** just happened and what's going on? And as I'm starting to walk towards her, she starts yelling. ... She starts yelling, 'Help me! Help me!" he continued.
He said he grabbed her arms and "she keeps yelling, and she kind of grabs my wrists and throws herself on the ground and pulls me down with her."
"When you're on the ground, what starts to happen?" defense lawyer Thomas Otake asked.
"She's holding on to me. And I'm trying to, you know, I'm trying to figure out what's going on, but I'm also, at this point, trying to let go of, like, trying to get free, because she's, like, actively holding on. She has her leg, like, wrapped around one of my legs, and like, is actively holding on to me, and is and is yelling. And so I'm trying to, you know, get free. And I get my my one arm free, and I try to use it to get my other arm free. And she grabs me by the testicles," he testified.
Konig, 47 and an anesthesiologist in Maui, has been in jail in Hawaii since March 24, 2025 — his wife's birthday — and he's currently on trial in the state's 1st Circuit Court in Honolulu on a second-degree attempted murder charge.