Tittleman Fauatea was admitted to the Hawai'i State Hospital for psychiatric evaluation last year but was released under a court order despite a finding that he could pose a high risk to others.

Three months later, he is accused of stabbing Asa Yamashita to death in an unprovoked attack at the Ewa Town Center.

Fauatea underwent three court-ordered mental examinations from September to November that concluded he was schizophrenic and posed a mild or moderate risk to himself or others, court records show.

However, the "probability of dangerous behaviors increases to moderate or high if he is not under the current level of supervision," states an Oct. 15 psychiatric evaluation written when Fauatea was still a patient at the hospital in Kane'ohe. While at the hospital, Fauatea attacked three other patients, the records show.

Fauatea apparently was released from the hospital sometime in late November.

A December psychiatric evaluation submitted to Kane'ohe District Court noted that a new fitness exam for Fauatea could not be carried out because "neither his attorney nor the various state agencies knew of his whereabouts."

And court records show that Fauatea failed to appear for a Dec. 19 hearing on trespassing charges, which were then dismissed, according to court records.

Meanwhile, Fauatea had pleaded no contest to a harassment charge at 'Ewa District Court, for which he received a six-day sentence to be served at O'ahu Community Correctional Center. He was given two days' credit for time served, then served four more days at OCCC. He was released from the custody of OCCC on Nov. 29, 2008, according to Louise Kim McCoy, spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety.

Janice Okubo, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, said yesterday that Fauatea was released from the state hospital by order of the court, though she would not say when.

Dean Young, who is representing Fauatea in the stabbing case, said based on the reports there seems to have been a breakdown in the system. According to the three examinations of whether Fauatea was fit to stand trial on misdemeanor charges of trespassing and harassment in Kane'ohe and 'Ewa district courts, he was first found to be unfit to proceed and by the final report he was barely fit to proceed, Young said.

"Although he's barely fit to proceed, you would think that at that point he should have been declared not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to the hospital," he said. "But somehow he's out."

'FLORIDLY PSYCHOTIC'

Young said the turn of events is frustrating and sad for the victim's family and the community she served as a reading strategies coach at Wai'anae High School.

Fauatea was indicted yesterday by an O'ahu grand jury on one count of second-degree murder in Yamashita's stabbing death.

Yamashita, 43, was killed on Friday as she sat eating noodles outside a store at the Ewa Town Center.

Police believe that Fauatea bought a large kitchen knife at a Longs Drugs, walked out of the store and stabbed Yamashita repeatedly.

City Deputy Prosecutor Daniel Shimizu recited the sequence of events while presenting the grand jury indictment to Circuit Judge Derrick Chan, who confirmed bail in the case at $500,000.

Chan ordered a bench warrant to be served on Fauatea, who remains in custody in lieu of bail.

Court documents paint a picture of a man with a history of mental illness who heard voices, believed that midgets were reading his mind and who in 2003 threatened to kill his sister's children.

When admitted to the state hospital Aug. 13 he was "floridly psychotic," markedly disorganized in his thinking with incomprehensible responses, court records show. A September report noted that he had multiple instances of having to be given medication to help him control aggressive behaviors such as throwing food trays against the wall or pouring water from a bucket over his head.

While staying with his sister in California in 2003, he called 911 multiple times stating that his sister was lying dead in bed, which was false.

He was hospitalized three times in California and once at Kahi Mohala for psychiatric problems, records show. His symptoms included impulsive, as well as verbal and physically assaultive behavior.

MOANALUA GRADUATE

The charges that led to his most recent competency evaluations in Hawai'i were all misdemeanors. They were:

• A June 8, 2008, harassment case in which he allegedly continued to stand immediately in front of a woman and would not leave;

• An Aug. 12, 2008, trespassing case in which he allegedly refused to leave a store after the owner asked him to go;

• And a contempt of court charge for not appearing in court regarding the first incident.

The documents describe Fauatea, 25, as a single, local Samoan male who was born in Utah and raised in Hawai'i. He was adopted when he was 2 days old into a family of 10 children.

He graduated with a certificate from Moanalua High School in 2002 and he has held two jobs since then. He lost both jobs because he couldn't conform to orders from his supervisors, the court records said.

Fauatea returned to Utah to meet his birth parents after he graduated and lived with his biological mother, who is divorced from his biological father. He returned to O'ahu a few months later because his biological mother could not handle him, the records said.

He was arrested in Las Vegas in 2008 for burglary, petty larceny and trespass and in 2005 for domestic violence, according to the court documents.

The December competency evaluation submitted to the court said Fauatea had made progress at the state hospital and could proceed with his court cases but noted that "his ability to maintain his level of recovery is questionable."

"He states that he is willing to take his medication at this time, but would probably stop it when he is released," the report said.