Repairman Convicted in Hawaii Murders

Deliberating for less than 90 minutes, jurors in Hawaii Tuesday convicted a former Xerox copier repairman for gunning down seven coworkers last November.

Byran Uyesugi's attorneys took two weeks laying out their claim that he was legally insane when he fatally shot seven co-workers in Hawaii's worst mass killing. Uyseugi was convicted of first-degree murder, which includes multiple murders, and attempted murder, for the shooting of an eighth coworker who survived the attack.

Uuesugi showed no emotion when the verdict was read Tuesday night, reports CBS affiliate KGMB-TV in Honolulu. But relatives of the victims expressed mixed emotions.

"No matter what happens to him, it does not bring my husband back," said Lorna Kanehira. "I pray that he never knows the joy of freedom in his lifetime."

Uyesugi, 40, faces a mandatory life prison term without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced Aug. 8. Hawaii does not have a death penalty.

"There is no acceptable reason to explain why this happened," Xerox spokesman Terry Dillman said. "It's shattered seven families. And it's forever changed, in a very profound way, a very special place in the world."

Uyesugi, a 15-year Xerox employee, fired a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun more than two dozen times at co-workers who had gathered for a meeting to discuss his light workload. Uyesugi surrendered to police after a five-hour armed standoff Nov. 2.

"This happened quite a while ago but it still feels like yesterday," said Reid Kawamae, whose father, Ron, was among those killed.

Defense attorney Jerel Fonseca never denied that his client shot the workers but argued that Uyesugi, an avid gun collector and tropical fish breeder, suffered from a mental illness, either delusional disorder or paranoid schizophrenia, and did not recognize how wrong his actions were.

"A rational mind was not in control that day," Fonseca said during closing arguments Tuesday. "When your rationality is limited, your choices are limited."

Prosecutor Peter Carlisle acknowledged that Uyesugi suffers from a serious mental illness, but contended during the three-week trial that Uyesugi was aware his actions were wrong and killed out of anger.

Carlisle also said Uyesugi didn't meet the definition of legal insanity because he exercised self-control throughout the shootings, from planning to acting to escaping. Uyesugi even purposely chose not to shoot one co-worker who was in the same general area as the seven victims.

After the verdict, Fonseca said, "I think he still doesn't fully understand what he's done and when a person doesn't understand what he's done it's hard for him to show remorse."

Xerox has been scrutinized for the way it handled previous incidents involving Uyesugi, including death threats against co-workers and his outbursts while servicing copy machines.

On Tuesday, the copany said it had set up a $400,000 college scholarship fund for the victims' children.

The shootings tore through the heart of the Aloha State, which has one of the lowest violent crime rates in the nation.

"I think that that was an alarming wake-up call to everyone," Carlisle said. "I certainly thought that we were fairly immune from it. We obviously aren't."

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