Hawaii State Hospital Waited 10 Hours to Report Dangerous Escapee
The escapee had been acquitted of a 1979 murder by reason of insanity and was diagnosed with sexual sadism and necrophilia.
The Hawaii State Hospital houses over 300 patients and his operated by the state Department of Health.
A Hawaii psychiatric hospital and the state Health Department are under investigation after personnel waited ten hours to inform authorities that a man who was acquitted of a 1979 murder by reason of insanity had escaped.
Randall Saito, 59, was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity in 1981 and was committed to the Hawaii State Hospital in Kaneohe, Oahu.
The victim, Sandra Yamashiro, was picked at random by Saito in 1979 and was shot in the face with a pellet gun and then fatally stabbed at a Honolulu shopping mall, according to CNN.
Saito escaped around 9 a.m. Sunday and took a cab to the Honolulu airport. He chartered a plane to Maui and then boarded a Hawaiian Airlines plane to San Jose, California. Authorities say the state Health Department didn’t report his escape until around 7:30 p.m. An alert was put out to the community at about 8:20 p.m, reports Hawaii News Now.
The FBI, US Marshals Service and other federal agencies searched for Saito. Authorities were tipped off by the cab driver and Saito was arrested Wednesday morning without incident in Stockton, California.
Saito has been charged with felony escape and his bail was set at $500,000. Authorities are in the process of extraditing him back to Hawaii.
Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin says he plans to prove to a judge that Saito’s escape was planned and premeditated and therefore he was not suffering any mental defect.
Although authorities will not say if he had help, surveillance video from the cab shows Saito with a backpack filled with supplies, which he didn’t have when he escaped.
Inmate Described as Manipulative, Sexual Sadist
After Saito was committed to the psychiatric hospital, he was diagnosed with sexual sadism and necrophilia.
In 2000, Saito’s defense attorneys sought to have him released. Deputy city prosecutor Jeff Albert objected, saying Saito “fills all the criteria of a classic serial killer.”
A medical staffer at the hospital says Saito is a “master at getting people to do what he wants”, calling him a “psychopath unable to feel empathy for others”. The same staffer believes Saito had outside help and had been planning the escape for a while because of his manipulative nature.
Hospital documents from 1993 reveal Saito had sexual relations with at least 3 hospital staff members where he was able to obtain contraband such as cell phones and pornography.
Hospital Questioned for Stalled Reporting to Authorities
Health Department director Doctor Virginia Pressler says a preliminary investigation “revealed that staff may have inadvertently or purposefully neglected proper notification of supervisors with appropriate supervision of the patients.”
Seven Hawaii State Hospital employees have been suspended without pay in connection with Saito’s escape.
“The hospital employees are being notified and will be relieved of their duties for 30 days as the internal investigation continues. As the investigation progresses, more employees may be identified and placed on off-duty status,” the Hawaii State Department of Health, which runs the hospital, said in a statement Wednesday.
Pressler says the hospital is reviewing all protocols and no visitors are allowed in the meantime. Stricter security procedures and random searches are currently underway and no patients are allowed to leave campus without an escort. Additional security fencing is being added and hospital staff has been retrained in the accountability process.
“It was a major breakdown in our Hawaii State Hospital protocols, procedures and guidelines. In this case, there was fault on our side and we’re doing what we can to address the issues that allowed that to happen,” continued Pressler.
Lawmakers are calling for hearings on the escape in addition to the current state investigation.
“This has been an ongoing thing for a long time. They’ve done investigations, we’ve had hearings, we’ve had apologies. We need action,” says state Representative Jarrett Keohokalole, who represents Kaneohe.
Saito Does Interview from Jail, Says Hospital Conditions “Inhumane”
Following his capture, Saito conducted a 1-on-1 interview from jail with Island News where he said he was surprised his getaway was working.
“It wasn’t like I planned on San Jose. I was just trying to find the cheapest tickets so I get to Cali and get a head start. This was all about buying myself time in the community, to prove that I could be in the community without doing anything wrong,” said Saito. “I wanna send a message to the people of Stockton, that they had nothing to fear from me really, really ever.”
Saito says he had $6,000 in cash on him but would not divulge how he obtained identification.
Saito also claimed conditions at the hospital were inhumane, stating, “I left because I told my Mom on the phone, I called her from the jail and I thought I haven’t felt like a human being since the last three or four days. Even being arrested, you feel like more of a human being than just sitting in that hospital… And you can ask some of the staff. Ask some of the old-timers over there. They’ll tell you it’s the worst they’ve ever seen in 37 years. It’s bad, man.”
Saito says he was dealing with addiction when he murdered Yamashiro and feels remorse.
“I was in bad shape I was paranoid. I was doing PCP, I was doing speed, I was doing LSD. Everything I could get my hands on. And I was drinking on top of that.”
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Amy Rock, Executive Editor
Amy is Campus Safety’s Executive Editor. Prior to joining the editorial team in 2017, she worked in both events and digital marketing.
Amy has many close relatives and friends who are teachers, motivating her to learn and share as much as she can about campus security. She has a minor in education and has worked with children in several capacities, further deepening her passion for keeping students safe.
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