Zimmerman and Brockert were vacationing at The Fairmont Orchid in Waikoloa when Zimmerman allegedly beat Brockert and inflicted fatal injuries including blunt force and sharp force trauma, according to police.
By CHELSEA JENSEN
Stephens Media
A Washington state man accused of the beating death of his girlfriend in a South Kohala hotel room last year is mentally fit to stand trial.
Kona Circuit Judge Ronald Ibarra on Tuesday ruled 46-year-old Philip Howard Zimmerman of Bellevue, Wash., mentally fit to stand trial on charges of second-degree murder, kidnapping and second-degree criminal property damage stemming from the May 23 beating death of 44-year-old Susan Brockert, also of Bellevue.
Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to the offenses. A grand jury has deemed Brockert’s murder “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity,” allowing prosecutors to seek enhanced sentencing of life without the possibility of parole.
Psychologist Alex Lichton and psychiatrists Drs. Henry Yang and Gene Altman all found Zimmerman mentally fit to proceed, according to court records.
Ibarra set Zimmerman’s jury trial for 9 a.m. on Aug. 7. Zimmerman, whom prosecutors called a flight risk, is being held without bail at Oahu Community Correctional Center.
Zimmerman and Brockert were vacationing at The Fairmont Orchid in Waikoloa when Zimmerman allegedly beat Brockert and inflicted fatal injuries including blunt force and sharp force trauma, according to police.