A top doctor broke down in court after a jury found him guilty of attempted manslaughter after he tried to push his wife off a cliff in Hawaii while attacking her with a rock.
Anesthesiologist Gerhardt Konig, 47, was convicted Wednesday of trying to kill his nuclear engineer wife, Arielle Konig, 37, while on a cliffside hike in Oahu on March 24 last year.
As the verdict was read at the Oahu First Circuit Court, he appeared visibly distressed.
Konig slowly bowed his head, appearing to take in the conviction, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
After taking his seat, he clutched his head in his hands, rubbing his temples and staring at the floor.
The jury convicted him of a lesser charge based on mental or emotional disturbance after two days of deliberation.
Konig previously pleaded not guilty to second-degree attempted murder charges, claiming he acted in self-defense.
During the three-week trial, prosecutors claimed that Konig pushed Arielle near the edge of the Pali Puka Trail and beat her multiple times with a rock on her birthday.
Konig’s lawyers claimed that Arielle attacked her husband first. They said the incident was a case of ‘he said, she said.’
Arielle said she had been trying to repair the couple’s marriage after Konig found ‘flirty messages’ between her and a coworker.
She described the relationship as a three-month-long ’emotional affair’ with her coworker.
‘I was apologetic,’ she testified. ‘He was obviously hurt. I was committed to my marriage, to rebuild. It felt like an affair to him. It was an emotional affair to him.’
Arielle claimed that after her husband wrestled her to the ground, he pulled out a vial and a syringe before attacking her with the rock.
The defense noted that police never found a syringe at the scene or evidence that he tried to inject his wife with any substance.
She told the court that she screamed, ‘Please help, he’s trying to kill me’ as her husband attacked her.
The attack only ended when two female hikers heard her pleas for help and called 911, the prosecution argued.
Konig had fled the scene when the two hikers arrived, and allegedly called his son, confessing to attacking his wife and saying he was going to take his own life.
Arielle testified that she was treated for ‘severe scalp lacerations’ following the incident and showed picture evidence of her injuries during the trial.
Konig’s attorney, Thomas Otake, previously argued Arielle’s injuries were not as bad as they appeared, and said she only suffered a small laceration to her eyebrow.
A physician from Queen’s Medical Center, though, claimed she had suffered crushed tissue down to the skull.
Konig told the court that the couple had gotten into an argument over their affair and that she struck him with a rock first before they wrestled one another to the ground.
He admitted to striking her with a rock but denied that he had any syringes.
The court was shown photographs of the contents of his medical bag, which included a syringe and a generic form of Propofol, the powerful anesthetic that caused Michael Jackson’s fatal overdose.
Konig also dispelled accusations that he attempted to push his wife toward the cliff’s edge.
The estranged husband expressed remorse for the attack.
‘I felt horrified about what I did to her, that I had caused this to her, that I had resorted to violence against my wife, the person whom I love the most in the world,’ he said. ‘And I just kind of felt hopeless in terms of our relationship, too.’
Prosecutors claimed Konig came up with a plan to kill his wife to avoid a divorce amid their marital issues.
It was also revealed that Konig stood to gain $250,000 from a life insurance policy in the event of Arielle’s death.
Arielle filed for divorce in May 2025 and sought full custody of the couple’s young sons.
Konig has been in jail since his arrest in March 2025, roughly eight hours after he attacked his wife. His medical staff privileges at Maui Health were revoked.
Arielle and Konig married in 2018, two years after meeting on a dating app.
His sentencing is scheduled for August 13.
