Maui doctor accused of trying to murder wife takes stand, claims self-defense

A doctor on trial on allegations he attempted to murder his wife on a trail in Hawaii last year took the stand in his own defense Thursday.

Maui anesthesiologist Dr. Gerhardt Konig is charged with second-degree attempted murder, accused of trying to push his wife, Arielle Konig, off a cliff during a hike in Honolulu on March 24, 2025, her birthday. Prosecutors allege he then assaulted her with a rock.

Gerhardt Konig hoped Thursday to persuade a Hawaiian jury that hitting his wife repeatedly with a rock was self-defense.

“She kind of grabs my wrists, and throws herself on the ground, and she hits me with a rock on the side of the face,” Gerhardt Konig testified.

He responded “yes” when asked by his attorney if he “reacted to defend” himself “in the heat of the moment.”

But prosecutors argued that Gerhardt Konig was angered when he saw text messages that he thought indicated his wife was having an affair.

“You were mad, right?” a prosecutor asked.

“I was not mad,” Gerhardt Konig responded on the stand.

“You were not mad when you confronted your wife about these messages?” the prosecutor followed up.

“I was upset,” Gerhardt Konig said.

Arielle Konig was critically injured in the incident but survived, and she has since filed for divorce. Last week, she testified against Gerhardt Konig, telling the jury he tried to stab her with a syringe, and when that failed, struck her with a rock.

“I just started screaming, because, in my mind, he’s trying to knock me unconscious, to get to be able to drag me over the edge,” Arielle Konig said during her testimony, which has been affirmed by witnesses in the trial.

“Yes, he was hitting her with a rock,” Amanda Morris, a nurse, testified last month when asked by prosecutors what she saw Gerhardt Konig doing on the trail.

Sarah Buchsbaum, also a nurse, said she witnessed the alleged attack and called 911. She also testified last month that Arielle Konig’s “face was covered in blood.”

“I felt horrible,” Gerhardt Konig testified Thursday when asked by his defense attorney how he felt to see his wife bleeding.

In his own testimony earlier this week, Gerhardt Konig’s 19-year-old son Emile Konig referred to his father as “the defendant.” He described what Gerhardt Konig said during a FaceTime call Emile said he received moments after the alleged attack.

“That he would not be making it back to Maui, and to take good care of the younger kids, and that Ari, my stepmom, had been cheating on him. And that he tried to kill her,” Emile Konig testified.

Asked on the stand if he planned or wanted to hurt Arielle Konig that day, Gerhardt responded “no.”

Prior to his arrest in the case, Gerhardt Konig was a doctor with the Anesthesia Medical Group in Hawaii. He had previously worked as an anesthesiologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where he had also served as an assistant professor of anesthesiology and bioengineering.

If convicted as charged, he could face up to life in prison.

Maui doctor accused of trying to kill wife on birthday hike says he hit her with a rock in self-defense

The Hawaii doctor charged with trying to kill his wife during a birthday hike testified at his attempted murder trial Wednesday that he struck her in the head with a rock after she tried to shove him from a cliff.

Gerhardt Konig told the Oahu courtroom that Arielle Konig tried to push him from a trail near Honolulu on March 24, 2025 — her birthday — after they had an argument about an emotional affair she’d had with a co-worker.

His account differed sharply from Arielle Konig’s testimony about the alleged attack last week.

They scuffled after the attempted shove, and his wife grabbed him by the testicles and hit him in the head with a rock, Gerhardt Konig said. He said he eventually wrestled the rock away and hit her with it twice.

She scooted toward two hikers on the trail, Konig said, and told them he was trying to kill her.

In a daze, Konig said, he continued up the trail and called his son on FaceTime. During the conversation, he said, he told him that he planned to take his own life.

In sometimes emotional testimony, Konig, 47, an anesthesiologist, said he felt horrible that he’d hurt his wife. But he said he’d acted in self-defense.

Konig denied having planned the trip from their home in Maui to kill his wife and said he’d been trying to do something nice for her birthday.

Prosecutors charged him with second-degree attempted murder and accused him of pushing Arielle Konig toward a cliff on the Pali Puka Trail before he attacked her with a syringe and a rock.

In his testimony Wednesday, Gerhardt Konig denied having had a syringe with him. And he denied telling his son during the video call that he’d tried to kill Arielle Konig. Emile Konig, 19, testified Tuesday that his father had said as much.

Gerhardt Konig acknowledged the word “kill” might have come up in the conversation but said it wasn’t a confession.

“I think I was saying to myself, like, ‘she said I tried to kill her,’” he said.

Arielle Konig recounted the events for the jury last week, alleging that her husband attacked her after he asked her to pose for a cliffside selfie.

Feeling uneasy about the location, Arielle Konig said, she tried to move past him, but he grabbed her and pushed her toward the cliff. After she threw herself to the ground, she said, he came at her with a syringe and began bashing her head with a rock when she batted the device out of his hand.

“Nobody’s coming to save you,” she recalled him saying at one point.

She escaped, she said, and was helped by bystanders on the trail who called authorities. In a 911 call played in court, the hikers described seeing a man trying to kill a woman whose face was covered in blood.

Gerhardt Konig took the stand again Thursday and was cross-examined by Honolulu County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Joel Garner. At one point, as the prosecutor grilled the defendant about his account of the hike, he showed the jury a pair of side-by-side photos from the incident’s aftermath.

In both, Arielle Konig’s face was covered in blood. Her husband’s face appeared to show minor bruising.

The alleged attack occurred three months after Gerhardt Konig discovered his wife had been having the emotional affair. They’d gone to counseling, Arielle Konig said, and appeared to be repairing the damage she’d caused to their relationship.

Gerhardt Konig said Wednesday that he was “devastated” by the affair, which he said she minimized and refused to answer questions about.