HILO — An escaped mental patient who stabbed his longtime friend to death in Puna more than two years ago pleaded no contest Friday to the slaying.
In a deal with prosecutors, David True Seal entered a no contest plea to manslaughter in the death of 32-year-old Rory Thompson Wick. Seal was charged with second-degree murder for the fatal stabbing of the father of three, which took place Nov. 5, 2013, at Wick’s home in Eden Roc subdivision.
The 37-year-old Seal had been scheduled to go on trial Monday.
Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara ordered Seal to appear for sentencing at 1 p.m. March 24. He faces a 20-year prison sentence for the manslaughter conviction. He was allowed to plead no contest for reasons of civil liability, as he is being sued by Wick’s mother, Elizabeth Hall, and Maya Samuels, the mother of Wick’s three children.
At the time of the stabbing, Seal had been at large since scaling a 14-foot-high wire mesh fence at the Hawaii State Hospital in Kaneohe, Oahu, on Dec. 3, 2009. He was committed to the to the state mental facility in April 2002 after being acquitted by reason of insanity for the kidnapping and attempted rape of an 8-year-old girl on Maui.
A witness said Seal, who was living in another house on Wick’s property, had helped Wick unload a delivery of lumber and had gone into Wick’s house to smoke marijuana prior to the stabbing, according to court documents.
The witness told police Seal, who called himself “Serif Swaim,” took two kitchen knives from a dish rack and called Wick out to fight, offering one of the knives to Wick.
After Wick reportedly told Seal to “cut it out,” Seal lunged at Wick with the larger knife and stabbed him in the back.
The witness ran from the home, hid in some bushes and called police.
Seal and Wick reportedly new each other from Hana High School on Maui, but it’s unclear how long Seal had been on the Big Island or how long he lived on Wick’s property.
Seal is being held without bail at Hawaii Community Correctional Center.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.