Maui doctor accused of attempted murder for attack on wife, takes stand in defense

*****Disclaimer/Graphic Content: Discretion is advised due to graphic and violent content.*****

A Maui anesthesiologist accused of second degree attempted murder for the alleged attack on his wife during a hike on Oʻahu last year, took the stand in his own defense, Wednesday.

The charge stems from a March 24, 2025 incident in which Gerhardt Konig, 47, is accused of striking his wife multiple times in the head with a rock and attempting to push her off the Pali Puka trail.  His wife, Arielle, was found on the trail near the “Pali” lookout with multiple head and facial injuries.

Gerhardt Konig was indicted by an Oʻahu Grand Jury shortly after, and pleaded not guilty to the criminal charge on April 7, 2025.

Before moving on to the defense witness list, the court heard from Gerhardt Konig’s son Emile, Arielle’s parents Peter and Judith Mast, and Honolulu Police Department detective Thomas Iinuma.

Konig’s son testified that his father told him in a video FaceTime call on the date of the alleged incident that: “He would not be making it back to Maui and to take good care of the younger kids.” According to Emile, the defendant said, “that Ari, my stepmom had been cheating on him, and that he [Gerhardt Konig] tried to kill her [Arielle].” Emile also testified that his dad said he planned to “jump off the cliff.”

Emile said that during the call, he asked the defendant what was on his shirt, “cause it looked like I saw splatters of something on his shirt… and he [Gerhardt Konig] said ‘Oh it’s just her,’ meaning Ari’s blood.”

When Gerhardt took the stand, he agreed that he “probably” used the word “kill” in conversation with his son, but claims it was not a confession regarding trying to kill his wife. “The one thing I could think of is that I said she said I tried to kill her,” Gerhardt testified.

Gerhardt Konig says he acted in self defense

Gerhardt Konig took the stand on Wednesday and explained that the trip to Oʻahu was to celebrate his wife’s birthday, a detail that both Gerhardt and Arielle agreed upon. However, his testimony of what transpired on their hike was in direct contrast to what his wife had shared during her testimony last week.

Gerhardt said that about five minutes into the hike, his wife told him about an upcoming work trip that would require her to travel with a coworker whom she admitted earlier to having an “emotional affair” with involving “flirty messages.” Gerhardt and Arielle had been in couples and individual counseling as a result.

During Wednesday’s testimony, Gerhardt said he was surprised and upset at the new development and told her that he was not okay with the trip.

“It made me realize that we were just not on the same page at all, in terms of like here I am just trying to like sublimating my feelings and focusing on her hurt, and waiting patiently for her to do the same to me, and this made me feel like she wasn’t intending on doing that ever,” Gerhardt testified.

“I said I need you to move out. This has gone far enough. In need you to move out and I’m going to tell people why you’re moving out,” Gerhardt said of the argument with Arielle on the hike. “… because unless you face this and unless you take full accountability for this, we’re never going to get through this.”

Gerhardt said he “stomped off up the trail,” and Arielle went the other way. After 5-10 minutes of heading up the trail, Gerhardt said he headed back down, and did not expect Arielle to be where he left her. He said he observed a “180 reversal” in her demeanor in which she was “extremely apologetic.”

Gerhardt claims it was Arielle’s idea to take a selfie by the cliffside, and that’s when he said he “felt like a shove, and I was almost pushed over the edge.” Gerhardt’s account as explored during quesitoning by Defense Attorney, Thomas M. Otake, tells a drastically different story than the one Arielle shared with the court.

“She starts yelling ‘help me, help me.’ She keeps yelling, grabs my wrists and throws herself on the ground and pulls me down with her. She has her leg wrapped around my legs and is actively holding on to me and is yelling. So I’m trying to get free, and I get my one arm free and try use it to get my other arm free and she grabs me by the testicles,” he said, “and held on.”

Then, he said, “I get both hands free… and then she hits me with a rock on the side of the face,” said Gerhardt. According to his testimony, Gerhardt said he was able to wrestle the rock out of his wife’s hands and struck her two times with it, saying it was done “in self defense” and that he felt “horrible” afterwards, describing his emotional state as being in “severe emotional distress.”

Arielle says her husband attacked her with a syringe and rock:

Arielle, a nuclear engineer, has been living on Maui just over three years now with her two small sons (ages 3 and 5) and a teenage stepson. Prior to incident, she had been married to Gerhardt for six and a half years and was in a relationship with him for nine years after first meeting in the spring of 2016.

When Arielle testified on March 24, she described the argument and physical altercation that occurred with her husband while on the Oʻahu hike. “He grabbed me really forcefully with his arms and said I’m so f___ing sick of this s__t. Get back over there. And he starts pushing me back towards the cliff,” she said.

“I threw myself down to the ground because there’s a lot of trees and shrubs so I could hold on,” Arielle said, explaining that Gerhardt was “straddling” her with legs on either side, across her waist.

“At first he was trying to pull me and get me close to the cliff,” according to Arielle. “He had a syringe in his hand, and he says ‘hold still.’ And I see the syringe and I just bat it away from us both.”

During the struggle, Arielle said she also saw a vile in her husband’s right hand and tried unsuccessfully to pry it loose. Meanwhile, Gerhardt claims he did not have syringes on the mountain that day and he did not try to poke his wife with one.

“He’s telling me ,’Shut the f__k up. Nobody’s going to hear you up here. Nobody’s coming to save you.'” according to Arielle’s testimony. “I’m saying like, ‘You can’t do this. Everyone knows we’re on a hike. They’ll know this wasn’t an accident and our kids will be orphans. You’ll go to jail and I’ll be dead. You have to stop.'”

At one point during the scuffle, Arielle said Gerhardt did seem to calm down a bit. “It seemed like he took a deep breath and calmed down. And so I had this moment where I was like, okay, this is the break, like I can get out. And then he just starts hitting me with a rock,” Arielle said.

“In my mind he was trying to knock me unconscious so he could drag me to the edge, so I was just screaming then as much as I could. At some point hear a woman’s voice say, ‘We’re here, We’re calling 911,'” Arielle testified.

“Gerhardt just kind of froze and knelt back away from me and I just crawled away really slow,” said Arielle. She said two women assisted her down the trail as she scooted along, unable to stand.

Arielle was taken by ambulance to the hospital where she was treated for severe complex scalp lacerations requiring stitches, and was discharged the following evening. The incident left lasting scars to her scalp and face, as well as a thumb fracture, according to testimony.

Arielle has since filed for divorce and is reportedly seeking full custody of her children.

The trial is scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. on Thursday, April 2, 2026 before Judge Paul B.K. Wong.