When a man accused of strangling a Waikiki woman goes on trial next week, his lawyer will claim that the woman was a prostitute who died accidentally while engaged in "asphyxiophilia" — the deliberate restriction of oxygen to the brain to intensify the sexual experience.
In a statement filed in Circuit Court on Wednesday, Myles Breiner, the attorney for murder defendant Donald Marks, said Marks, 40, "adamantly maintains" that Yoko Sanders "death was the tragic result of sexual misadventure."
The statement said that Marks will contend at trial that he and Sanders, 38 were engaged in "consensual bondage practices," including efforts to induce "hypoxia," or oxygen deprivation.
Marks is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the Nov. 2, 2002, slaying.
He had been renting a fifth-floor unit at a private condominium building at 2509 Ala Wai Blvd. for several months. Sanders' body was discovered in a unit on the same floor.
The autopsy report on Sanders shows no defensive wounds, no broken finger nails or rope fibers in the fingernails which would indicate that Sanders tried to remove the rope from her neck, according to the trial memorandum.
Despite multiple stab wounds, the autopsy found Sanders died of strangulation. Her head was found in a black plastic bag next to her body.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/May/14/ln/ln08a.html
In a statement filed in Circuit Court on Wednesday, Myles Breiner, the attorney for murder defendant Donald Marks, said Marks, 40, "adamantly maintains" that Yoko Sanders "death was the tragic result of sexual misadventure."
The statement said that Marks will contend at trial that he and Sanders, 38 were engaged in "consensual bondage practices," including efforts to induce "hypoxia," or oxygen deprivation.
Marks is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the Nov. 2, 2002, slaying.
He had been renting a fifth-floor unit at a private condominium building at 2509 Ala Wai Blvd. for several months. Sanders' body was discovered in a unit on the same floor.
The autopsy report on Sanders shows no defensive wounds, no broken finger nails or rope fibers in the fingernails which would indicate that Sanders tried to remove the rope from her neck, according to the trial memorandum.
Despite multiple stab wounds, the autopsy found Sanders died of strangulation. Her head was found in a black plastic bag next to her body.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/May/14/ln/ln08a.html
