The spouse of a 52-year-old Orchidland Estates man accused of the fatal slashing of his mother-in-law with what police describe as a large sword has filed a petition for a temporary restraining order against the murder suspect.
“He killed my mom,” Steven Meinking wrote about Christopher Roy Howlind in the petition dated Wednesday. “After he killed my mom, he was talking all kinds of trash, trying to blame me for his actions and saying a lot of things leading me to believe he wanted to hurt me next.”
The 37-year-old Meinking indicated in the filing he and Howlind are married.
The slaying occurred in the early afternoon of April 28 at the 38th Avenue home Meinking and Howlind shared — and, according to the TRO petition, owned jointly with with the victim, 58-year-old Teri Apple.
Responding officers found Howlind, who had apparently ingested some type of toxic liquid, with injuries to his hands and bloodied clothes. The bloody sword was next to the Howlind, police said.
According to police, a search of the property turned up Apple’s lifeless body with severe wounds to her neck, arms and hands.
Howlind was arrested on suspicion of murder, but was taken by ambulance to Hilo Medical Center, where he was admitted after becoming unresponsive in the ambulance.
After Howlind’s release Thursday from the hospital, he was charged with second-degree murder for Apple’s slaying.
At Howlind’s initial court appearance on Friday, Hilo District Judge Bruce Larson granted a request by prosecutors for a mental examination to determine Howlind’s fitness for trial by three mental health professionals.
Larson maintained Howlind’s bail at $1 million and ordered him to return to court at 10 a.m. July 11.
Howlind remains in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center.