The last time Tittleman Fauatea was at the Hawai'i State Hospital was apparently on Nov. 26 when officers from the state Department of Public Safety picked him up and took him to the O'ahu Community Correctional Center to serve out a six-day sentence for harassment.

That came about six weeks after an Oct. 15 psychiatric assessment that concluded that Fauatea needed "at least another 60 days of treatment" at the hospital in Kane'ohe.

Yet after completing the harassment sentence — four days with two days of credit — he was released into the community on Nov. 29, said Louise Kim McCoy, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety.

"There was no paperwork, nothing indicating to send him anywhere else or hold him for that matter," she said yesterday.

Three months later, Fauatea is accused of killing Asa Yamashita in an unprovoked attack at the Ewa Town Center.

And questions about whether Fauatea should have been released from state custody remain unanswered.

Spokesmen for the state Judiciary and Health Departments would not comment about the case yesterday. Janice Okubo, DOH spokeswoman, had said earlier that the hospital had a court order to release Fauatea.

Court documents reveal a sequence of events that at first made it clear Fauatea needed treatment after misdemeanor charges in two separate jurisdictions: a harassment charge in 'Ewa and a trespass charge in Kane'ohe.

Fauatea, 25, was initially sent to the Hawai'i State Hospital on Aug. 13 for evaluation of his competency to stand trial on the misdemeanor harassment charge. While there, he underwent a series of psychiatric assessments that began with his Aug. 13 intake and subsequent exams from September through November. They concluded that he was schizophrenic, heard voices and believed that midgets were reading his mind.

The evaluations found that his thinking was markedly disorganized and his responses incomprehensible. A September report said there were multiple instances of having to medicate him to control aggressive behavior. And in October, he assaulted three other patients at the hospital.

Although he was considered capable of understanding his court procedures, a December report indicated that once he was out of the hospital, he probably would stop his medication.

RISK TO SELF, OTHERS

The evaluations also concluded that Fauatea posed a mild or moderate risk to himself or others.

However, the "probability of dangerous behaviors increases to moderate or high if he is not under the current level of supervision," stated the Oct. 15 psychiatric evaluation written when Fauatea was still a patient at the hospital.

After three months of treatment and signs of improvement, the final mental evaluation in December questioned Fauatea's progress.

"Overall, patient demonstrated the basic requirements for fitness to proceed," the report said. "However, his ability to maintain his level of recovery is questionable."

The Kane'ohe evaluations followed three hospitalizations in California and another at Kahi Mohala.

The first indication that there was a problem with Fauatea's whereabouts came in December, when a psychiatric evaluation noted that a new fitness exam could not be carried out because "neither his attorney nor state agencies knew of his whereabouts."

When Fauatea failed to show up for a Dec. 19 hearing on his trespass case in Kane'ohe, his public defender told the judge that she had thought he would be among the other clients from Hawai'i State Hospital, according to a recording of the proceedings.

Public Defender Clarissa Malinao said she had no information to determine whether or not he was still at the hospital.

But Malinao downplayed the importance of the misdemeanor trespassing charge and argued for dismissal of the case and against issuing a bench warrant for his arrest.

"A bench warrant should not be issued as it was not my client's fault that he was released from HSH, if that was truly the case," she said.

'DANGEROUSNESS'

The state prosecutor, Jefferson Willard, pushed for the warrant, saying that his capacity to conform his conduct at the time of the offense was impaired.

However, Judge David Lo granted the dismissal.

Tim Ho, chief deputy at the Public Defenders Office, said the state has the option to press for further commitment to the state hospital. The involuntary commitment is for 90 days and the person would be granted a court hearing, Ho said.

"If he's acquitted by mental disorder, disease or deficit, the court can hold a dangerousness hearing no matter what the charge," he said. "If it's a petty misdemeanor or murder, they can hold him until they feel he is safe to be released."