Lecturer stabbing case: Man gets high bond

Tom Sharpe | The New Mexican

5/2/2008 - 5/3/08

A man accused of stabbing a lecturer on thought transference last month at a downtown Santa Fe hotel will remain in jail unless he can come up with $250,000.

On Friday, state District Judge Michael Vigil set the cash-only bond for Kazuki Hirano of Yokohama, Japan, who has been held for a month at the Santa Fe County jail on a charge of attempted aggravated battery with a knife or, in the alternative, attempted murder.

If convicted of the first charge, he faces up to three years in prison. If convicted of the second, he faces up to nine years. No further hearings have been set in the case.

Immigration authorities say Hirano is in the United States legally.

At Friday's arraignment, Assistant District Attorney Joe Campbell asked that no bond be set for Hirano because he is a flight risk and has no local address. If released, Hirano might pose a danger to the victim, his family or others, Campbell said.

Public defender Sydney West told the judge Hirano could not post the bond. If the bond were low enough he could post it, she said, she would find him a verifiable local address. Vigil said if Hirano were released, he would have to wear a Global Positioning System monitor and not leave Santa Fe County.

Rupert Sheldrake, an English biologist known for his theories on mental telepathy, had finished speaking at the 10th international Conference on Science and Consciousness at La Fonda on April 2 when Hirano, who was attending the conference, allegedly stabbed him in the left thigh.

Other attendees subdued Hirano and treated Sheldrake's wounds before police and an ambulance arrived.

Sheldrake, who was talking about how thoughts can be transferred from one person to another, said Hirano had told him the day before that he heard voices and thought people were trying to communicate with him telepathically.

In an e-mail read to the court, Sheldrake, who has returned to London, said Hirano might attack him again because he appeared to need psychiatric care, and his "motives were obscure." Sheldrake said the British press is carrying stories about a paranoid schizophrenic who murdered a man on a bus shortly after he was released from prison.

Neither Campbell nor West raised the issue of mental competency Friday. Campbell said later he considered raising the issue but decided against it because he had no new information on Hirano's mental condition.

Gaunt, handcuffed and dressed in a crimson jail jumpsuit, Hirano displayed no emotion during the hearing. He listened to a Japanese interpreter, nodding and usually answering the judge with "OK." When Vigil asked how he pleaded, Hirano said, "I am not guilty." Asked as he was led out of court if he wanted to comment, he asked, "This time?" but said nothing else.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.