HILO — The trial of a 43-year-old man accused of the fatal stabbing of his mother three years ago in lower Puna is in the hands of a jury.
Sean Rutledge is charged with second-degree murder and faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole if convicted.
Rutledge’s court-appointed defense counsel, Brian De Lima, concluded his closing argument and Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Hashizaki delivered his rebuttal argument Tuesday. The jury got the case at about 3:15 p.m., an hour and 15 minutes before the courthouse closes for the day, leaving little time for selecting a foreperson and deliberating the evidence.
The naked body of Nadean Rutledge, a 63-year-old information officer for the former Wai‘opae Tide Pools, was found under a bed sheet Aug. 25, 2015, in a side yard of her Kapoho Vacationland subdivision home, which was inundated earlier this year by lava from Kilauea volcano’s lower East Rift Zone eruption.
Sean Rutledge, who was the subject of a police all-points bulletin, was arrested the following morning after he was spotted by police officers while walking toward Pahoa from the Keaau direction on Highway 130.