Details emerge over State Hospital escapee Randall Saito's past
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - There's a massive, multi-agency manhunt underway for Randall Saito, the 59-year-old Hawaii State Hospital escapee who grabbed a cab from the Kaneohe facility on Sunday morning, jumped on a charter plane to Maui, then boarded a Hawaiian Airlines flight to San Jose, Calif.
Here's what we know about him:
He's considered violent.
Saito was acquitted by reason of insanity for the gruesome 1979 murder of Sandra Yamashiro at Ala Moana Center. Prosecutors said she was chosen at random, shot in the face with a pellet gun, then fatally stabbed.
After the murder, Saito was reportedly diagnosed with sexual sadism and necrophilia, or sexual attraction to corpses.
Prosecutors vehemently opposed his acquittal. At the time, the city prosecutor vehemently disagreed with the decision, calling his acquittal a "miscarriage of justice."
"The defendant committed a cold-blooded murder," the prosecutor said.
More recently, state officials have described Saito a "violent pscyhopath.
He's tried to seek release from the State Hospital for years.
Dating back to the 1990s, Saito has sought to get released from the State Hospital, the only forensic pscyhiatric facility in the islands.
During one of those efforts, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported that state prosecutors believed Saito fit "all the criteria of a serial killer" and opposed his release. And in 2002, in a Honolulu Advertiser article, prosecutors questioned why Saito was granted unescorted leave from the facility.
"He is a psychopathic predator whose mental condition continues to represent a serious danger to the community," deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jeffrey Albert said at the time.
He's known to manipulate people.
A medical staffer at the Hawaii State Hospital who has worked with Saito says he's a master at getting people to do what he wants.
While the staffer doesn't know how Saito got out, he thinks Saito had outside help and was planning an escape for a while because of his manipulative nature.
"They'll never find him," said the staffer. "He's a smart guy. He's not impulsive. It's not an impulsive act. He had some planning. He had someone on the outside."
Hospital staff called the patient, Randy, and say he was a charming, likeable guy.
Documents from 1993 obtained by Hawaii News Now revealed that Saito had sexual relations with at least 3 hospital staff members.
An FBI behavioral expert testified that those improper affairs, along with Saito's alcohol abuse, made him even more threatening.
Sources also tell Hawaii News Now Saito had sex with employees during other occasions as well when he was able to obtain contraband including like cellphones and pornography.
The hospital staffer says Saito is considered a psychopath unable to feel empathy for others, but was not getting the treatment he needed because he was refusing psycho-therapy.
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