HILO, Hawai'i — A Big Island man who was acquitted by reason of insanity in the 1994 murder of his girlfriend in 'O'okala is seeking release from Hawai'i State Hospital on O'ahu.

Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara yesterday ordered three mental health experts to examine Curtis K. Kealoha and report back to the court later this year.

Kealoha, 58, has been undergoing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder related to his service in the Army in Vietnam, and last week Deputy Public Defender Michael Ebesugawa filed an application for Kealoha's discharge or conditional release.

Kealoha, a former power-plant operator with Hamakua Sugar, was charged with second-degree murder in the strangling of Victoria Agres on Oct. 4, 1994, in a plantation house in Niu Village.

Kealoha had been released from Tripler Army Medical Center the month before, where he had been treated for substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder. He admitted to using cocaine in the days before the murder, according to court records.

A civil defense siren sounded the day of the slaying, and a psychiatrist who treated Kealoha said he was "having a flashback that he was under attack in Vietnam and under the influence of cocaine."

According to police reports in the case, Kealoha walked to a neighbor's house after the slaying and told him "You can call the police, I wen kill the wahine." Kealoha was sitting on a stool outside his house with scratches on his arms and blood on his body and shorts when police arrived, according to police reports.

In 1996 Kealoha was acquitted in the murder "on the ground of physical or mental disease disorder or defect excluding responsibility," and was committed to the Hawai'i State Hospital in Kane'ohe.

Kealoha applied for conditional release in 1999, and in 2003 Judge Terence Yoshioka ordered that he be treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.

A hearing will be held after the mental evaluation is complete to determine whether Kealoha should be released.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.