Xerox Murders - Trial and Incarceration

Trial and Incarceration

Forty-year-old Byran Uyesugi's month-long trial began on May 15, 2000. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and claimed that he felt like an outcast at work and that he feared his colleagues were conspiring to have him fired. Dr. Park Dietz and Dr. Daryl Matthews testified for the defense that he was insane, citing the delusions about how others were tampering with his fish. Lead prosecution expert witness Dr. Harold Hall testified that the Defendant fulfilled the criteria for a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but he did not meet the criteria for either insanity or extreme emotion or mental disturbance (EMED). Dr. Michael Welner testified for the prosecution that although Mr. Uyesugi was in his opinion a schizophrenic, he carried out the shooting because he was angry that he would be fired for insubordination, and that his own account of concealment before the crime demonstrated that he knew what he had done was wrong.

The jury found him sane and guilty of seven murders and one attempted murder. He received a sentence of life without chance of parole. Hawaii does not have the death penalty.

He appealed his conviction. In 2002, the State of Hawaii Supreme Court upheld Uyesugi's conviction. In 2004, Uyesugi was considering fighting his conviction based on Rule 40, inadequate representation by his lawyers in his first trial.

In 2005, Xerox and the hospital that examined Uyesugi settled a lawsuit brought by the families of the shooting victims, who felt that both had ignored clear signs of Uyesugi's mental instability.