Murder suspect has sat in Hawaii jail for 7 years without a trial: report

John Ali Hoffman, 56, allegedly murdered his wife and two children in 2016, and is still locked up in a Hawaii jail seven years later with no trial or resolution of the charges, Honolulu Civil Beat reported.

Repeated inquiries into Hoffman's mental health over the years have stalled the case.

"The criminal case against John Ali Hoffman, 56, was first suspended on May 19, 2016, to allow him to be examined by a panel of three experts to assess his mental condition," Civil Beat's report stated. "Each of those experts concluded Hoffman was fit to proceed, meaning he could understand the proceedings and assist in his defense."

One of the psychiatrists tasked with assessing Hoffman’s mental health, Dr. Andrew Bisset, said in 2016 that “it was clear that (Hoffman) was attempting to establish psychiatric impairment as a defense against the charges he faces.”

In 2017, a judge ruled that Hoffman was fit to go to trial but, since then, the case has remained in limbo. He currently remains in the Hilo jail on a bond of over $2 million.

Retired Third Circuit Court Judge Ronald Ibarra said he's never seen a case drag on with no resolution like Hoffman's. He also wondered why Hoffman remains in Hawaii Community Correctional Center if authorities consider him unfit for trial.

“If the person is not fit to proceed, and the state is trying to medically get them fit to proceed, then it should be at the state hospital if (he is) in custody,” Ibarra said.

In an opinion written to the court, Bisset said that “throughout the interviews the Defendant focused on his belief that he was the victim of a conspiracy to deprive him of property that he owned, that various judges had conspired to have him killed, that through title searches he had found that he was the owner of multiple properties, and that attempts on his life had been made …

“It is not at all clear what kind of listings he had found through searching on the internet, but he had become convinced that his situation had ‘national security implications’ because of the number of Chinese and Japanese individuals listed,” Bisset wrote.

Read the full report over at Honolulu Civil Beat.