By JOHN BURNETT
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
The wife of a 60-year-old Puna man charged with murdering a neighbor in December of last year told police her husband admitted to her in late March he had shot and killed the man, according to court documents filed by police.
Documents state a Hilo police detective received a telephone call from a victim-witness counselor at the prosecutor’s office on Oct. 28 to inform him that a woman named “Patty” — who turned out to be Patricia Needham — told her that her husband, Donald John Needham, admitted he fatally shot Andrew Cawley.
Cawley, 34, was reported missing on Dec. 28, 2020, and his decomposing body was found Jan. 5 in a shallow grave off Mauna Loa Drive in Mountain View.
Police interviewed Patricia Needham on Oct. 29, according to documents, and she reportedly said Donald Needham told her that he was walking along Mauna Loa Drive on Dec. 22, 2020, when Cawley stepped out of the forest and surprised him.
Needham allegedly told his wife he had responded by shooting Cawley once in the chest, and then told Cawley, “You messed with the wrong guy.” He then allegedly dragged Cawley’s body by the pants cuffs and buried him.
Patricia Needham reportedly told officers that prior to her husband’s admission to Cawley’s murder, he had been sleeping with a small, black, loaded handgun under his pillow. She noticed, however, he no longer did so sometime in January, documents state. She said Donald Needham told her the gun had been stolen.
It wasn’t the first time Patricia Needham had spoken to police about Cawley, according to documents.
On Dec. 28, 2020, Patricia Needham reportedly called police requesting officers “counsel” Cawley regarding his actions. At that time, police claim, Patricia Needham told officers Cawley had damaged a sign on a gate on the Needhams’ property. Then on Jan. 6, 2021 — the day after Cawley’s body had been discovered, but before it had been positively identified — Patricia Needham reportedly told police Cawley had stalked and harassed her adult daughter, Jessica Cawley.
Patricia Needham also told officers they had applied for a temporary restraining order against Cawley, but it had been denied. Online court records indicate the TRO petition was filed on Aug. 3, 2020, but an attempt to gain documents on the case produces a pop-up window that states, “The case you are attempting to view is confidential and not public record at this time.”
On Jan. 6 police also spoke to Donald Needham, but he allegedly denied knowing what Andrew Cawley looked like and told officers the issue his wife and daughter had with Cawley was “their thing.”
Police did a firearms check on Donald, Patricia and Jessica Needham and found Jessica Needham had applied for a permit for a long gun, but the application had expired in 2016. Donald and Patricia Needham didn’t have registered firearms, documents state.
A search warrant was executed on the Needhams’ Mauna Loa Drive property on Nov. 3. The search included a 45-foot shipping container on the property, which produced AR-15 rifle parts in a clear plastic container and zip lock bags containing unspent .45 caliber ammunition. Also seized were a white Priority Mail package with three AR-15 rifle lowers, a case of unspent .223 caliber ammunition, and a metal toolbox with .12 gauge shotgun shells.
Patricia Needham filed for an order for protection from her husband, which was served to Donald Needham in Family Court on Aug. 24.
In the petition, Patricia Needham said her husband “borrowed a gun from a neighbor and has been practicing shooting on our property.” She said she “live(s) in extreme fear of him daily” since he told her about shooting and killing Cawley.
“I don’t know or trust this person and I am terribly afraid that if he could do that to someone else, he can definitely do it to me,” she wrote.
Online court records indicate she filed for a divorce from her husband on Sept. 9.
Donald Needham was arrested Monday at Cinderland, an off-grid, self-sustaining community off Government Beach Road in lower Puna, where he had been staying. He was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder for Cawley’s slaying.
At Needham’s initial appearance in Hilo District Court on Wednesday, his attorneys, Brian De Lima and Jeremy Butterfield, argued for a dismissal of charges or a reduction in bail.
That motion was denied by Judge Kanani Laubach, who maintained Needham’s bail at $1 million and ordered him to return to court at 2 p.m. Tuesday for a preliminary hearing.
Donald Needham remains in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
