Dingle pleads guilty to stabbing wife to death

By JOHN BURNETT

By JOHN BURNETT

Tribune-Herald staff writer

A former Waikoloa Marriott Resort & Spa houseman who stabbed his wife to death along the Hilo Bayfront more than two years ago won’t stand trial.

Steve Santos Dingle, 49, whose trial was scheduled to start on Monday, Aug. 6, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Tuesday morning for the slaying of 38-year-old Cathy Esteves Dingle. In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed not to pursue a possible sentence of life without parole due to the nature of the fatal attack, described in the indictment as “heinous, atrocious and cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity.”

Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara set sentencing for Oct. 4 at 9 a.m.

Dingle, who is in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center, was accompanied by his court-appointed attorney, Stanton Oshiro.

He stood stoically during sentencing, mostly with his head bowed. His replies to Hara’s questions were almost inaudible to spectators in the gallery.

When asked by the judge what happened, Dingle read from a prepared statement interpreted from Ilocano to English by Antonia Lambayan.

“I admit on May 29, 2010, I intentionally caused the death of another person …,” Dingle said.

“And who was that person,” Hara asked?

“My wife, Catherine,” he replied.

Hara then inquired of Deputy Prosecutor Darien Nagata what else the state would prove in respect to the charge.

“Your Honor, on or about May 29, at 6 p.m., in the area of Bayfront on Kamehameha Avenue …, Steve Dingle stabbed Catherine Dingle … with a kitchen knife multiple times. The victim, Catherine Dingle, was rushed to the Hilo Medical Center, and later pronounced dead … on May 30, 2010, at 2:30 a.m. The autopsy on June 2, 2010, concluded that she had nine stab wounds, and the cause of death, penetrating stab wounds to the chest and abdomen, with injuries to the right lung, liver and spleen.”

The slaying of Cathy Dingle, a mother of four who worked at Big Island Candies, and the arrest of Steve Dingle shocked the island’s Filipino community. The attack, which occurred in broad daylight, was witnessed by dozens of motorists and passers-by, many celebrating Memorial Day weekend.

A man in a van drove onto a curb on Kamehameha Avenue to stop Steve Dingle. The impact knocked the knife from Dingle’s hand. Numerous passers-by subdued Dingle and detained him until police arrived.

In September 2010, Dingle was found fit to stand trial by a panel of three court-appointed mental health professionals.

Dingle’s change-of-plea hearing was added to Tuesday’s court calendar the previous day. A hearing was held July 23 on a flurry of pretrial motions, including questions about the admissibility of purported statements and actions by Dingle. According to court records, Dingle said “I regret what I did; she f——d me up,”on May 29, 2010, at Hilo Medical Center. Also, on about May, 25, 2010, Dingle allegedly hit Cathy Dingle in their Mountain View home in front of their son, Hensley Dingle, and Cathy Dingle’s mother, Lydia Esteves. He then allegedly grabbed his wife’s cell phone and “yelled words to the effect of: ‘I’ll kill you if I catch you with another guy’ and ‘I will kill you, I don’t care if they don’t have a mother.’” Hara ruled those statements were admissible at trial.

The Dingles were married 19 years. Steve Dingle filed for divorce in 2004, but the case was dismissed in 2007.

Nagata said afterward that Dingle “took responsibility for his actions.” A few of Steve Dingle’s relatives were present but declined to be interviewed.

Dingle is the second former Waikoloa Beach Marriott employee to be convicted of murder. In February 2010, Hara sentenced former kitchen steward Lito Mateo to life plus 20 years in prison for the fatal shooting of his wife’s longtime lover, Tito Rafol, who also worked at the Marriott, on March 8, 2007, in the hotel’s employee parking lot.

Email John Burnett at
jburnett@hawaiitribune-
herald.com.