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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 3:45 p.m., Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Escapee from state hospital captured in Kaneohe

Advertiser Staff

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Casey Nies

Honolulu Police Department photo

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Alert residents led police to the capture of a Hawaii State Hospital patient who walked away from the Kaneohe facility yesterday morning.

After a tip police were able to pick up Casey Nies at a bus stop at the intersection of Ahuimanu Road and Kahekili Highway at about 2 this afternoon.

Police said three people reported seeing Nies and he went with police without incident.

Nies, 36, was reported missing from the hospital at 9 a.m. yesterday. He apparently walked off the property unnoticed, police said.

In 2003, Nies was arrested and charged with first-degree attempted murder after he allegedly attacked a Maui police officer with a samurai sword.

Nies, who had slashed a man, was shot in the pelvis by police when he refused to drop the sword.

He was committed to the state hospital after a judge declared him unfit to stand trial. A panel of mental health experts had declared him "actively psychotic."