Trial has been set for an escaped mental patient accused of stabbing his friend to death late last year in Puna.
David True Seal on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. Third Circuit Judge Glenn Hara ordered him to appear for a jury trial at 8:30 a.m. June 16.
The 35-year-old Seal is accused of the slaying of 32-year-old Rory Thompson Wick on Nov. 5 on the Eden Roc subdivision property where both men lived in separate residences.
According to police, Wick was stabbed multiple times in the heart and left lung by Seal, who escaped Dec. 3, 2009, from the Hawaii State Hospital in Kaneohe, Oahu, after scaling a 14-foot-high wire mesh fence. Seal was at large since his escape. He was committed to the mental hospital in April 2002 after being acquitted by reason of insanity for the kidnapping and attempted rape of an 8-year-old girl on Maui.
Seal was found fit to stand trial by a panel of three mental health examiners. He was indicted March 12 by a Hilo grand jury on a second-degree murder charge. He is being held without bail.