Three Hawaii Police Department officers and one civilian testified Wednesday during a preliminary hearing for 42-year-old Pahoa woman accused of fatally strangling her significant other with his car’s driver-side seatbelt.
Patricia Ann McConnell is charged with second-degree murder for the late night strangulation death of 45-year-old Patrick Dalrymple-Collins on April 25 at the Lehua Road property in Nanawale Estates where the couple lived.
Lance Kawelo, a 67-year-old man who testified he was a friend of Dalrymple-Collins, said a woman friend dropped him off at the Lehua Road property to pick up his bicycle, which he had left there earlier in the day.
Under questioning by Deputy Prosecutor Rebecca Lester, Kawelo said he saw Dalrymple-Collins in the driver’s seat of his white Honda Fit as he approached the property’s gate.
“His butt was on the chair … the door was open and his head was on the ground,” Kawelo said.
“Did you try to talk to him?” Lester inquired.
“I just looked over the fence and it didn’t look like he was breathing, so I assumed something was wrong,” Kawelo replied. “So I just walked up to … my friend’s car and I told her to call for me.”
“That call to 911?” Lester asked.
“Yes,” Kawelo said.
Kawelo said he talked “only briefly” to McConnell.
“She just told me that her and Pat got into some sort of altercation and she punched in the head or something like that, and they fought, and that was it,” Kawelo said.
During cross-examination, Deputy Public Defender Jared Auna asked Kawelo if he could see McConnell’s eye.
“I can see that she has a black eye,” Kawelo said.
Officer Keaolapule Fessenden-Grace said he responded to McConnell’s and Dalrymple-Collins’ residence “multiple times for domestics” and that he had arrested both the suspect and the victim two nights earlier. He said when he arrived there on April 24, he was waved down by McConnell and Kawelo who directed him to the car in the driveway.
Fessenden-Grace said Dalrymple-Collins was “slumped over, out of the vehicle, with his lower half still in the vehicle and his upper half outside of the vehicle, face down.”
“I did observe his lips to be purple; he was pale in color, as well as slight blood coming from his right ear,” the officer testified.
“Where was the seatbelt, if you remember?” Lester asked.
“I did observe the seatbelt; it was stretched out from the vehicle from the front driver seat and stretched out approximately a foot, a foot-and-a-half on to the ground,” Fessenden-Grace answered.
The officer said he administered two cans of Narcan, used an automatic electric defibrillator on Dalrymple-Collins and “continued CPR until medics arrived at the scene.”
“And were your efforts successful, at all?” Lester queried.
“They were not,” the officer replied.
Fessenden-Grace testified that he detained McConnell, who said “something to the effect of he was trying to attack me, so I choked him.”
“And did you observe any injuries on her, the defendant?” asked Lester.
“I did observe some redness to her wrist area,” Fessenden-Grace said.
The officer said a pat-down search of McConnell produced a crystalline substance that tested “presumptive positive for methamphetamine.”
Officer Harrison Clifford said he ushered McConnell away from Dalrymple-Collins “for scene security” while CPR was being performed.
Clifford testified McConnell said “several things, such as, for example, to the effect of ‘I’m calm now because I’m not under attack. I had to defend myself; I had to fight for my life.’”
Detective Duane Rapoza of the East Hawaii Criminal Investigation Section said he observed the autopsy performed on Dalrymple-Collins’ body on April 25 by Dr. Kate Raastad.
“At the end of the autopsy, she determined that the cause of death was strangulation,” Rapoza testified.
Rapoza also answered “yes” when Lester asked if he believed that, based on the facts of this case, McConnell should be subject to possible extended terms of sentencing. Such sentencing could increase the mandatory sentence for a second-degree murder conviction from life imprisonment with the possibility of parole to life without the possibility of parole.
Auna didn’t call any witnesses on McConnell’s behalf during the proceedings.
Hilo District Judge Jeffrey Hawk ruled that probable cause exists to try McConnell on the charges. He ordered McConnell to appear for arraignment and plea at 8 a.m. May 14 in Hilo Circuit Court.
McConnell remains in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center in lieu of $1.505 million bail.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
